YOUNGSTERS do not make out well as amateur constructors of telescopes, but in a very few cases lads between 12 and 14 have made good, generally because their minds were older than their years. One of these is Reed Knox, Jr. of University Terrace, Deland, Florida. Knox, whose age is 14, writes:
"It has been two years since the last time I wrote you about my telescope, and another mirror broke on the concrete. It has taken longer for me to make a six-inch than it took Mr. Fecker to make a 60-inch, but I finally have it done, as the photograph shows. The mounting is steady and very handy. I use a 1/2-inch eyepiece now with a power of 86 times. I hope to start on another telescope soon for a friend of mine. I have been to Pittsburgh several times in the last two years, where I spent most of my time in Mr. Fecker's place and at the Allegheny Observatory. Mr. Fecker let me polish some on my mirror last spring in his shops, and showed me a new kind of pitch lap on which you can regulate the evenness of the polishing by drilling holes in the lap."
HERE is another letter from a 14-year old worker, Waino Mellin, of 2136 Byron Street, Berkeley, California: "The mirror is ten and one half inches in diameter and has a focal length of 111 inches. The pier is concrete set two feet in the ground. I used Model T Ford axles and housing, as the photograph shows. I made a flat for the diagonal, an eyepiece of moderate power, and bought one of low power. The definition of the mirror is excellent. I have separated Lambda cygni, whose components are six tenths of a second apart.
"I began telescope making about two years ago when I was 12 years of age, so naturally my progress was very slow. After two failures and one year of hard work I crudely mounted a three-inch The results started me on a six-inch right away and it was mounted four months later. It had a figure so bad it could not be expressed in words, nevertheless it gave surprising results and I spent many pleasant hours of observing. Then I tackled an 11-inch. The mirror required about 40 hours of work. I struggled ten hours with turned-down edge but could only parabolize ten and one half inches of the diameter. My two worst troubles were silvering and making pitch laps. But finally I succeeded in obtaining thick, brilliant and tough coats of silver and made good pitch laps. .
"I am now working on a ten-inch and two seven-inch mirrors. I think telescope making is the most pleasing and interesting of any hobby, and best of all is observing the structure of the universe."
SO much for the two juniors. Now for a senior.
"In one of your earlier numbers you figure at what age a boy should be capable of making a telescope. Now it struck me," says Luther I. Waite, 46 Bennett Avenue, Binghamton, New York , "that there might be an age limit at the other end of the picture. A little over a year ago I bought a copy of 'Amateur Telescope Making' and last winter, after I was 76 years old, I made a telescope. I bought a ten dollar beginner's outfit from Mr. Pierce of Springfield, Vermont. In trying to mount the handle on the disk, I cracked the glass. I sent for another and when the second one was about ready to polish I dropped it and broke a big chunk out of the back and supposed of course that it was spoiled. So I sent for the third glass. I finished and mounted this glass and with a one-inch eyepiece that will magnify about 48 times I get good results.
"In Sir James Jeans book 'The Universe Around Us' it says a telescope with an eyepiece which magnifies 60 times will make Jupiter look as large as the moon. The moon looks to me to be 8 to 10 inches in diameter and Jupiter looks only about 1-1/4 inches. I do not understand what is the matter."
Well, well! It ought to look "as big as a dinner plate." What's wrong? Jupiter may be farther from Binghamton than the rest of the world.
PERHAPS the youngest amateur telescope maker of all is the one shown in the photographs captioned "MacQueen." However, this youngster appears to have had an assistant, Dr. J. W. MacQueen, Martin Building, Birmingham, Alabama. The senior partner of this firm of MacQueen and MacQueen, amateur telescope makers, is the secretary and he writes: "I've always had some side line, along with more serious duties, for interest and relaxation, but telescope making beats chess and bookbinding by a long shot. And to couple it with the fun of amateur astronomy makes its interest two-fold.
"The picture enclosed is my first mirror' six inches in diameter with focal length of 40 inches. It only took about 35 hours grinding over a period of two months and I must confess I was a little weary by that time. I polished, using HCF and rouge, with the HCF on top of a layer of pitch. This worked fine and polished rapidly." [We like this better than HCF on plaster of Paris. Just cold press it in and go to work.-Ed.] ~
"The tube is an innovation, I believe. The Chief Engineer standing by the mounting in the picture was playing with an old Meccano set and I wondered if the small girders and beams would be strong enough to hold the weight of the mirror. He and I made the unorthodox square rig shown in the picture which has proved highly satisfactory. Nothing better can be found than the small strips of steel with frequent holes and brass bolts that come with these outfits to make the holder for the diagonal mirror, whether one wants to make the whole tube from them or not."
Some time later we again hear from the secretary of the MacQueen-MacQueen concern, who writes:
"I'm in again. Here's a picture of my second telescope, an 8-3/4 inch. I still don't believe the experts can grind, polish, and figure one in six hours. But anyway that's probably your story and you'll stick to it." [Ha ha! It was Ellison's. He can do it, but for ordinary mortals 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 or. . . is more like it.-Ed.] "The whole job has cost less than 40 dollars."
THE telescope photograph captioned "Francke" was sent in without description, by Louis Francke, 1301 West Tenth Street, North Little Rock, Arkansas.
