Great Paris Exhibition Telescope Of 1900 - Bus Wash Systems - Car Wash Tool

Design

Design

The telescope: overall side view (top); the siderostat (left) and lens tube (right); ocular lens end (inset)

The telescope had two interchangeable objective lenses (for visual and photographic use respectively) 1.25 m (49.2 inches) in diameter, with a focal length of 57 m (187 ft). Due to its extremely large size, the telescope was mounted in a fixed horizontal position. Light from astronomical objects was redirected into the optical tube assembly via a Foucault siderostat, a movable plane mirror 2 m (6.56 ft) in diameter, mounted in a large cast-iron frame at the objective lens end of the telescope. The horizontal steel tube was 60 m (197 ft) long. The telescope eyepiece/plate end could be shifted five feet on rails for focusing. With the lowest power of 500, the field of view was 3 arc minutes.

Construction of the telescope

The eye-piece holder

The mirror for the siderostat was ground mechanically by the Gautier Company (headed by Paul Gautier, 18421909) and took nine months to finish. The blank for the mirror was cast by Georges Despret, director of the Jeumont glassworks in northern France. The lens blanks were cast by douard Mantois (18481900) and ground by Gautier. By the time the Paris Exhibition opened only the object lens for photographic observation was ready. The visual object lens, unfinished, was put on display nearby.

Erection of the telescope

The instrument in place

The telescope was erected in the Palais de lptique on the Champ de Mars, near the Eiffel Tower. The tube, oriented north-south, was made up of 24 cylinders 1.5 meters in diameter and rested on 7 concrete and steel pillars; its axis was 7 meters above the floor. The room at the end which housed siderostat with the mirror had a movable dome to allow direct access to the sky.

Scientific observations

A few scientific observations were made using the giant telescope, even though it was not designed for scientific use. Thophile Moreux (18671954) observed sunspots through the telescope and made drawings of them. And Eugne Michel Antoniadi (18701944) made several drawings of nebulae. As well several large photographs of the surface of the moon, made by Charles Le Morvan (18651933), were published in the Strand Magazine, November 1900.

Aftermath

An 1892 cartoon ridiculing Franois Deloncle who proposed the project

After the company, organized in 1886 to build the telescope, went bankrupt the telescope was put up for auction (1909). No buyer was found and eventually the components were scrapped. The 2-meter diameter mirror is on display at the Observatoire de Paris, and two of the lenses have recently been discovered in packing crates in the basement.

Throughout its existence the telescope was the butt of many derisive jokes and unflattering cartoons. In part this was due to the belief of the academic community that the telescope would be completely useless. But as the centrepiece of an exhibition showcasing the best of the recent advances in industry and technology it served its purpose.

Bibliography

Paul Gautier, ote sur le sidrostat lunette de 60 m de foyer et de 1,25 m duverture, in Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes pour 1899 (Paris, 1898), pp. C126.

Franoise Launay, he Great Paris Exhibition Telescope of 1900, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 38 (2007), 459475.

References

^ Launay, pp. 463-466.

^ Launay, pp. 467-468.

^ Launay, pp. 471-473.

^ Launay, p. 468-471.

^ Launay, pp. 461462.

Categories: Telescopes | History of Paris | 1900 in France

by: gaga

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