The Perfect Machine

by Ronald Florence

  Damage control: Hale to Henry Robinson, telegram, 4 May 1928, CIT/Hale 30. Hale to Robinson, 16 October 1928, CIT/Hale. Pencil draft: Merriam and Root to Rose, 5 May 1928, CIT/Hale 30.

  Merriam gives in: Thorkelson diary, 10 May 1928, IEB 1-21-312. Memo, Warren Weaver to Fosdick, 24 March 1929, GEB 1-4-612-6474. Merriam and Rose exchanged cordial though stiffly formal letters to confirm their new understanding. John Merriam to Wickliffe Rose, 3 May 28, IEB 1-21-312.

  Merriam’s sham poll of the board: 11 May 1928, CIT/Hale 30. Rockefeller’s blessing: George W. Gray, Education on an International Scale (Greenwood Press, 1978).

  9. Elation

  Startup problems: Gano Dunn to Wickliffe Rose, 20 April 1928, CIT/Hale 35. Rose to Hale, 26 May 1928, IEB 1-21-312. Thorkelson Diary, 11 June 1928, IEB 1-21-313. Hale to Root, 14 June 1928, CIT/Hale 30.

  Porter: Hale to Albert Ingalls, 10 August 1928, CIT/Hale 8. Berton C. Willard, Russell W. Porter (Bond Wheelwright Company, 1976), p. 177. The Anderson/Pease story is told in David O. Woodbury, The Glass Giant of Palomar. Woodbury often embellishes his tales, but he was a close friend of Porter, so this anecdote seems trustworthy. See also Willard, Russell W. Porter, p. 175f.

  Problems with the one-hundred: Hale to Max Mason, 21 November 1928, IEB 1-21-314. Anderson’s design memo: CIT/Anderson 4.6.

  Early negotiation with Thomson: Hale to George Ritchey, 5 March 1904, 31 March 1904, CIT/Hale 30. Deborah J. Mills, “George Willis Ritchey and the Development of Celestial Photography,” American Scientist, March 1966, p. 73. Elihu Thomson, “The 200-in. Telescope,” GE Review 33: 3 (March 1930), p. 138f. Pease to Hale, 25 March 1925, CIT/Hale 33. Ellis budget: 30 March 1928, CIT/Anderson 4.2. Gerard Swope to Henry Robinson, 6 July 1928, IEB 1-21-314.

  Startup rumors and the press: Adams to Hale, 8 September 1928; Adams to Robinson, 17 September 1928, Huntington/Adams 67.1189. Correspondence after the announcement, including Johnston to Hale, 20 December 1928, is in CIT/Hale 8.

  10. Beginnings

  Shapley’s opposition: Shapley to Adams, 11 January 1927. Huntington/Adams 61.1077. The Diary of H. L. Mencken (Alfred A. Knopf, 1989).

  Sensitivity to Mount Wilson light pollution: Hale to Adams, 15 March 1928, quoted in Osterbrock, Prince & Pauper, p. 225. Site dispute: Arnett Diary, 24 September 1928; Thorkelson to George E. Vincent, 7 September 1928, IEB 1-21-314. Hale on Mount Wilson, quoted in Wright, Palomar.

  Anderson’s equipment: J. A. Anderson, “The Astrophysical Observatory of the California Institute of Technology,” Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Journal (1942), p. 179–81. Anderson to Hale, 8 November 1928; Hale to Anderson, 7 December 1928, CIT/Hale 3. Hale to Anderson, 20 July 1928, 23 July 1928, CIT/Hale 3. Hale’s defense of Southern California: William H. Pickering to Hale, 17 November 1928. Hale to Pickering, 10 December 1928, CIT/Anderson 1.18. Arnett and the outside committee: Arnett Diary, 26 September 1928, IEB 1-21-314. Trevor Diary, 24 September 1928, IEB 1-21-314. “Summary of History to end of 1938” [internal Rockefeller Foundation memo]. GEB 1.4.612.6474.1103.1, p. If. Arnett to Hale, 26 September 1928, IEB 1-21-314. Hale to Arnett, 22 September 1928, CIT/Anderson 1.20. Hale to Arnett, 26 September 1928 and 29 September 1928, IEB 1-21-314. Arnett to GEH, 4 October 1928. GEH to Arnett, 4 October 1928, IEB 1-21-314.

  The meeting in NY: Arnett Diary, 10 October 1928, IEB 1-21-314. Hale’s health: Hale to Merriam, 21 December 1928, CIT/Hale 8. Hale to Pickering, 10 December 1928, CIT/Anderson 1.18. A memo summarizing the status of the project in 1928 is in IEB 1-21-313.

  On Pasadena in 1928, see Carey McWilliams, Southern California Country: An Island on the Land (Books for Libraries Press, 1970).

  11. Hope

  Early work at GE: John Winthrop Hammond, “Building a Looking-Glass to Mirror Unknown Stars,” GE internal publication [undated], p. 7If. Early budget disputes, A. E. Ellis to Anderson, 21 February 1929. CIT/Anderson 4.2. The earliest proposal for a ribbed mirror is in Thomson to Hale, 16 July 1928, CIT/Anderson 4.6.

  Hale memos: Memorandum to Anderson and Pease, 16 September 1928, CIT/Hale 3. Memo on Committees, 21 January 1929, CIT/Anderson 1.17. Hale to Anderson, 29 June 1928, CIT/Anderson 1.5. J. E. Ross to Anderson, 8 November 1928, 19 November 1928, CIT/Anderson. Hale to Swasey, 4 September 1928, CIT/Anderson 2.1. Hale describes the early decisions in “Building the 200 Inch Telescope,” Signals from the Stars, p. 100. Anderson to H. J. Thorkelson, 22 October 1929, CIT/Anderson 1.22. The possibility of building the mounting in Southern California is in a Pease memo, 11 December 1928, CIT/Anderson 6.19.

  12. Depression

  Ammonia as a fuel: Ellis to Anderson, 14 August 1929, CIT/Anderson 4.2. Problems with fused quartz, Anderson to Ellis, 1 July 1929; Ellis to Anderson, 6 July 1929, 16 July 1929, CIT/Anderson 4.2. Anderson to Ellis, 14 November 1929, CIT/Anderson 4.2.

  Ritchey’s designs: G. W. Ritchey, “L’Evolution de l’Astrophotographie et les Grands Télescopes de l’Avenir,” Publié sous les Auspices de la Société Astronomique de France (1929), plate 33. Adams, Anderson, Pease, Seares to Hale, 3 July 1928; Adams to Thorkelson, 28 August 1928, CIT/Anderson. Gérard de Vaucauleurs, “George W. Ritchey and the Dina Laboratory,” Sky & Telescope 85:1 (January 1993), pp. 98–100. Anderson to H. J. Thorkelson, 22 October 1929, CIT/Anderson 1.22.

  Robinson’s endowment funds lost: Brierly memo of meeting with A. H. Fleming, 19 December 1930, IEB.

  Ideal material: Anderson to Ellis, 14 November 1929, CIT/Anderson 4.2. Ellis to Anderson, 14 August 1929, CIT/Anderson 4.2. Hale to Porter, 19 August 1929, CIT/Anderson 1.19. Hale to H. M. Robinson, 18 November 1929, CIT/Hale 30.

  Hale’s mounting ideas: Memo to Anderson, 19 July 1928, CIT/Hale 3. On the ribbed design: Thomson memo, 24 November 1928, GE. Anderson to Thomson, 22 December 1928; Thomson to Anderson, 28 December 1928, CIT/Anderson 4.2.

  13. Orderly Progress

  The early Corning disks: McCauley to Sullivan et al., 11 September 1929, Corning. Also, McCauley, “Glass Mirrors at Corning …” [unpublished manuscript], Corning. G. V. McCauley, “Some Engineering Problems Encountered in Making a 200-Inch Telescope Disk,” talk at the Annual Meeting, American Ceramic Society, Buffalo, N.Y. (February 1935).

  Thomson’s talk was later published in GE Review 33:3 (March 1930), pp. 137–40.

  Sixty-inch mirror preparations: Porter to Anderson, 15 August 1930, CIT/Anderson 1.19. Ellis to Anderson, 4 March 1930, IEB 1-21-316. The new budget is in an Ellis memo, 5 June 1930, CIT/Hale 30 (Robinson Papers).

  Thomson and Ellis plan: Porter to Anderson, 15 August 1930, CIT/Anderson 1.19. New disasters: Ellis to Anderson, 4 December 1930, CIT/Anderson 4.3.

  14. Change of Guard

  Will Rogers on Einstein is in a letter to the editor, Los Angeles Times, March 6, 1931. Mrs. Einstein is quoted in Berendzen, Hart, and Seeley, Man Discovers the Galaxies, p. 200.

  Hubble’s new research: Hale to Max Mason, 25 February 1931, CIT/Anderson 1.20. Humason to Hale, 9 March 1931, CIT/Hale 3. Einstein wavering on A: Eddington, “Forty Years of Astronomy,” p. 128. Einstein to Millikan, 1 August 1931, Millikan Papers, quoted in Judith R. Goodstein, Millikan’s School (W. W. Norton, 1992), p. 101.

  Zwicky: Paul Wild, “Fritz Zwicky,” Morphological Cosmology, proceedings of the Eleventh Cracow Cosmological School, Poland, August 22–31, 1988, p. 392.

  John Anderson, “Sinclair Smith,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (August 1938), p. 12.

  Adams on Bowen: Adams to Hale, 30 April 1928, CIT/Hale 35.

  Mason and Hale on relativity: Hale to Max Mason, 8 November 1929. Max Mason to Hale, 12 November 1929, IEB 1-21-315. The same year that Einstein had written Hale, Millikan was working on an experiment to disprove another Einstein prediction.

  Hale on progress with GE: Hale to Max Mason, 25 February 1931, CIT/Anderson 1.20.

  The optics lab: Hale to Anderson, 21 March 1931, CIT/Anderson 1.6. Porter to Burrell, 8 April 1930, CIT/Anderson 2.1. Anderson to Hale, 20 December 1929, CIT/Anderson 4.6.

 
Shapley on the quartz program: Shapley to Adams, 31 March 1931, CIT/Anderson 4.4. Thomson, McManus to Thomson, 30 March 1931, GE. Memorandum, 16 March 1931; Ellis to Thomson, 17 March 1931, GE.

  Hale on Pyrex: Hale to Mason, 30 March 1931, CIT/Anderson 1.6. Hale to Anderson [undated, with reference to a letter from O. A. Gage at Corning of 25 March 1931], CIT/Hale 3. Memo on conference in New York City, 8 October 1931, Corning.

  Renegotiations with Thomson: Hale to Thomson, 30 March 1931, GE. Ellis to Hale, 22 May 1931, GE. Hale to Anderson, 8 December 1930, CIT/Hale 3. Robinson, Millikan, Noyes, Hale, 29 May 1931, GE. Ellis to C. E. Eveleth, 19 June 1931, GE. Ellis to Hale, 18 September 1931, GE. Hale to Ellis, 10 September 1931, GE.

  15. New Light

  The old boys on Pyrex: Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes to Warren Weaver, 2 March 1932, IEB. A. L. Day to J. C. Hostetter, 11 May 1931, Corning 7.9.1.1. Walter Adams to H. A. Spoehr, 21 April 1931, IEB.

  Hale goes east: Hale to Arnett, 5 June 1931, IEB. Ellis to Swope, 28 September 1931; Ellis to Eveleth, 27 July 1931; Ellis to F. A. Storz [undated], GE. Max Mason Diary, 30 September 1931, IEB.

  Meeting in New York City with Corning: Max Mason Diary, 8 October 1931, IEB 1-21-318. Hostetter, Memo on conference in New York City, 8 October 1931, Corning. Hostetter to Falck et al., 15 October 1931, Corning 7.9.1.1.

  GE publicity: Ellis to Hale, 9 November 1931, GE.

  McCauley: “Glass for the Lens Maker” [unpublished, 18 November 1940] McCauley Papers, Corning Museum. “Corning Glass Works and Astronomical Telescopes” [unpublished], Corning, November 1965, p. 8. G. V. McCauley, “Electrically Controlled Cooling of a 200-Inch Telescope Disk” [unpublished], 25 March 1936, Corning. Hostetter to Sullivan et al., 17 November 1931, Corning. Max Mason to Hale, 5 February 1932, IEB. O. A. Gage to Hale, 25 April 1932, Corning 7.9.1.1. Day to Sullivan, Gage, McCauley et al., 12 January 1932, Corning.

  On the shape of the disk and molding a concave face: Day to Hale, 24 February 1932; Hale to Day, 29 February 1932, Corning. In 1992 Steward Observatory, at the University of Arizona, succeeded in casting a 6.5-meter telescope mirror in a rotating oven, so that the surface of the disk assumed a concave shape as the glass cooled.

  Fortune magazine snooping: Max Mason to Dwight Macdonald, 16 May 1932, IEB.

  McCauley, “Corning Glass Works and Astronomical Telescopes,” p. 22. McCauley, “Some Engineering Problems,” is the best description of the details of the disk-casting process and equipment.

  16. Good News

  Hostetter asserting himself: Hale to Trevor Arnett, 26 June 1933, GEB 1-4-611-6470.

  17. “The Greatest Item of Interest … In Twenty Five years”

  Invitations to the casting: Pease to Adams, 31 October 1934, Huntington/Adams. Memo from McCauley, 12 February 1934, Corning. An amateur filmmaker did a grainy silent movie of the preparations and the casting and later tried to sell it as a documentary. There is a copy in the Corning Museum Library. The warning to McCauley is from my interview with Jerry Wright at Corning, 22 August 1990.

  18. Salvaging Hopes

  Changing the name of Palomar: Catherine M. Wood, Palomar: From Tepee to Telescope (San Diego, 1937), pp. 52–53.

  Design changes: Minutes, Advisory Committee Meeting, 29 January 1929, CIT/Astrophysics 3.7. Hale to W. J. Luyten, 20 February 1931, GE. Hale memo to Anderson and Pease, 16 September 1928, CIT/Hale 3. Hale memo to Committee on Design of 200-inch Telescope Mounting, 21 January 1929, CIT/Anderson 6.19. C. S. McDowell, “Building the 200-Inch Telescope,” Journal of the Franklin Institute, 224: 6 (December 1937), p. 684.

  Sinclair Smith: Anderson to Hale, 24 August 1925, CIT/Hale 3.

  Support-system bearings: Anderson and Porter, “The 200-Inch Telescope,” The Telescope, March-April 1940, p. 35.

  Scandal at Mount Wilson: Osterbrock, Pauper & Prince, pp. 274–75. Osterbrock thinks Herbert was blackmailing George Hale. John Merriam: Merriam to Adams, 20 March 1934, Huntington/Adams. Max Mason memo, 30 January 1934, GEB. Max Mason memo, 20 March 1934; Hale to Fred Wright, 13 April 1934, Huntington/Adams. Fred Wright to Hale, 17 April 1934, CIT/Anderson 1.7. Root to Hale, 19 May 1934, CIT/Hale.

  19. Revelation

  The second pour: Memo, WHC, 3 December 1934, Corning. Hostetter to Hale, 27 November 1934, CIT/Hale. F. S. Kriger to W. H. Curtis, 21 December 1934, Corning.

  Construction bids: Ferguson to Hale, 3 October 1934, CIT/Hale. McDowell, Max Mason memo, 18 October 1934, GEB. McDowell to Serrurier et al., 9 December 1935, CIT/Rule 2.9. McDowell to Hale, 25 March 1936, CIT/Hale. McDowell to Anderson, 4 January 1935, 27 January 1935, CIT/Anderson 7.2.

  Palomar work camp: George Mendenhall to McDowell, 18 March 1936, Hale/Anderson 1.9.

  20. Swept Away

  Shipping preferences: Hale to McCauley [telegram], 21 December 1933, Corning. McCauley to Hale, 26 January 1934, CIT/Hale.

  21. The Journey

  The optics lab: McCauley, “Glass for Palomar” [unpublished], Corning, 26 March 1947, Corning. SKF Industries advertisement, Western Machinery & Steel World, August 1937, p. 9.

  Public unveiling of the disk: Hostetter to Hale, 2 December 1935; Hale to Hostetter, 4 December 1935, CIT/Hale. The Evening Leader, 8 December 1935.

  Transport schemes: Argonaut to Anderson, 6 October 1932; Wiley to Anderson, 10 May 1934, CIT/Anderson 4.9. McDowell to Hostetter, 1 October 1935, Corning.

  The journey is documented in clippings in the Corning Archives. See also Dennis de Cicco, “The Journey of the 200-inch Mirror,” Sky & Telescope, April 1986, p. 347. A copy of the Burlington brochure is in the Corning Museum Library. McCauley to Hale, 26 March 1936, CIT/Anderson 1.7.

  22. On the Roll

  On the mountain: Hale to Max Mason, 1 May 1933, CIT/Anderson 1.20.

  Byron Hill: McDowell to Hill, CIT/Anderson 1.9.

  Baade and the idea of the Schmidt telescope: Anderson to Hale, 5 October 1931, CIT/Hale 3. Zwicky and the little Schmidt: Roland Müller, Fritz Zwicky, Leben und Werk des grossen Schweizer Astrophysikers, Raketnforschers und Morphologen (1898–1974) (Verlag Baeschlin, 1986), p. 147. Fritz Zwicky, “The Early History of the Faint Blue Star Program,” First Conference on Faint Blue Stars, Strasbourg, August 1964 (The Observatory, University of Minnesota, 1965), p. 4. I am indebted to Allan Sandage for bringing this reference to my attention. In the winter of 1935, when Zwicky went back to Hamburg, Bernhard Schmidt was drinking cognac so heavily that, as one of his colleagues put it, “Death took the polishing tool from his hands.”

  Design work: Anderson to Hale, 10 March 1933, CIT/Anderson. Memo, McDowell to Hale, 9 March 1936, CIT/Anderson. Mark Serrurier, “Structural Features of the 200-Inch Telescope for Mt. Palomar Observatory,” Civil Engineering, August 1938, pp. 524–25.

  Welded construction: Memo from W. A. Kirkland, 3 April 1935 CIT/Rule 10.14. McDowell to Max Mason, 25 November 1935 [with enclosed memorandum on “Development of Telescope Design”], GEB. McDowell to Cmdr. E. D. Almy, USN, 3 April 1935, CIT/Rule 10.14. Hale to McDowell, 30 September 1935, CIT/Anderson 1.10. Frank Fredericks and N. L. Mochel, “Mounting of the 200-Inch Telescope: A Welded Structure,” Metals and Alloys (November 1939), p. 336.

  Rein Kroon: Reinhout P. Kroon, “What’s Past is Prologue: a Personal History of Engineering,” Symposium at the Towne School of the University of Pennsylvania, 7 October 1970. Kroon later worked on the Westinghouse design team that developed the first American jet engines. Emerson to McDowell, 18 July 1935, CIT/Rule 11.2. Froebel to McDowell, 9 October 1935, CIT/Rule 11.4. Engineering Committee Minutes, 24 January 1936, Huntington. R. P. Kroon, “Unique Bearings Support Yoke of 200 Inch Telescope” [undated, provided by Mr. Kroon]. Hale to McDowell, 30 September 1935, CIT/Anderson 1.10.

  23. The Endless Task

  Optics lab: Construction Committee Minutes, 1 October 1937, Huntington Library. David O. Woodbury, “Man Bites Glass,” This Week, 10 September 1939, p. 4. I’ve generally not relied on Woodbury, because his facts are often wrong and his inventiveness ran afoul of people who were there. A
nderson confirmed that the biography of Marcus Brown in this article was essentially correct. See Anderson to Emily Butler of Scott, Foresman & Co., 21 May 1946, CIT/Anderson 1.12.

  Max Mason: Hale to Anderson, 26 April 1932, CIT/Anderson. Hale to Max Mason, 26 April 1932, IEB 1-22-319. Progress report, 1 June 1936, Huntingon/Adams 67.1198.

  24. Crisis

  Another disk: Max Mason to Amory B. Houghton, 11 January 1937, CIT/Astrophysics 2.1. McCauley memo, 26 January 1937, Corning. Warren Weaver Diary, 29–30 January 1937, RF. Warren Weaver Diary, re phone call with McDowell, 18 December 1936, RF.

  The big Schmidt: R. B. Fosdick to Max Mason, 21 May 1937, RF. Zwicky believed that an additional $500,000 was awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation for the Schimdt camera because of his success with the little Schmidt. See Fritz Zwicky, “The Early History of the Faint Blue Star Program,” p. 5.

  Mason and Weaver: Max Mason to Warren Weaver, 19 November 1936; Warren Weaver to Max Mason, 3 December 1936, RF.

  25. Big Machines

  McDowell and the 1/10 scale model: McDowell to Max Mason, 17 January 1935, GEB. Mark Serrurier, “Structural Features of the 200-Inch Telescope for Mt. Palomar Observatory,” Civil Engineering, August 1938, p. 525. McDowell, “Final Report on the 200-Inch Telescope Project,” January 1939, p. 4, CIT/Astrophysics 2.14.

  Westinghouse negotiations: Hale to McDowell, 31 January 1936, CIT/Anderson 1.7. Serrurier to McDowell, 13 March 1936; G. W. Sherburne to McDowell, 12 March 1936, CIT/Anderson 1.10. G. H. Froebel to McDowell, 27 March 1936, CIT/Anderson 7.4. Norman L. Mochel, “Welding and Annealing the Telescope Parts” [unpublished], Westinghouse [courtesy of Rein Kroon], p. 2. McDowell to Jess Ormondroyd, 19 March 1936, CIT/Anderson 7.4. Press Release, News Department, Westinghouse, East Pittsburgh [undated], Corning.