The Perfect Machine

by Ronald Florence

  Milling the horseshoe: “Sunbonnet for a Bearing,” internal Westinghouse publication [undated], Westinghouse.

  McDowell: McDowell to Max Mason, 27 June 1935, GEB. Max Mason to Warren Weaver, 30 March 1937, GEB.

  The design of the dome: Porter memo, 20 November 1936, CIT/Rule 3.8. Engineering Committee Minutes, 1 July 1936, Huntington/Adams 67.1199. Pease Memo, 7 April 1936, Huntington/Adams.

  26. Fine Points

  Disk progress: Warren Weaver Diary, 30 January 1937, RF. Max Mason to Warren Weaver, 1 June 1937, CIT/Astrophysics 2.10.

  Hubble’s survey plans: “The Distribution of ExtraGalactic Nebulae,” Astrophysical Journal 79 (1934), pp. 8–76.

  Palomar wives poll: Max Mason to J. J. Johnson, 29 March 1938; Zwicky to Mason, 9 April 1938; Baade to Mason, 6 April 1938; Humason to Mason, 2 April 1938; Adams to Mason, 31 March 1938, CIT/Astrophysics 3.8. Monastery: Hale to McDowell, 22 April 1936, CIT/Anderson 1.7.

  27. Passing the Torch

  Dark matter: Sinclair Smith, “The Mass of the Virgo Cluster,” Astrophysical Journal 83 (January 1936), pp. 23–30. F. Zwicky, “On the Masses of Nebulae and of Clusters of Nebulae,” Astrophysical Journal 86 (October 1937), pp. 217–46. Control systems: Robert McMath to Walter Adams, 1 April 1938, Huntington/Adams 45.783. Minutes of the Construction Committee, 3/25/38, Serrurier. Memo of Robert R. McMath, CIT/Advisory Committee.

  Construction: Max Mason to Hale, 5 December 1934. Hale to Max Mason, 12 December 1934, CIT/Hale. Construction Committee Minutes, 28 October 1937, Construction Committee minutes, 19 January 1937, Serrurier. Smith and McDowell, Drive and Control of the 200-Inch Telescope (Memo, 14 May 1937), Rule.

  Pease: Engineering Committee minutes, 8 April 1936, Huntington/Adams.

  Hale: Hale to Max Mason, 8 October 1935, 13 November 1935, GEB. Hale to McDowell, 30 September 1935, CIT/Anderson 1.10. Dedicating the telescope to Hale: See H. S. Mudd to Millikan, 5 May 1938, CIT/Observatory Council Correspondence.

  The bust: Anderson to Thorkelson (Kohler), 8 July 1942, CIT/Anderson 1.22.

  Electrical systems: Irwin, “Report on the Electrical Power Supply for the Astrophysical Observatory on Palomar Mountain,” 13 February 1936, CIT/Anderson 1.9.

  Shipment: Fredericks to McDowell, 9 November 1938, CIT/Rule 16.

  Mobil Oil: “The Greatest ‘Eye’ in the World,” Socony-Vacuum News 14: 5 (December 1948); George H. White, “The World’s Biggest ‘Eye’ Floats on MobilOil,” Doings in General, October 1948. J. Ormondroyd, “The Two Hundred Inch Telescope Mounting,” Address at the Final Assembly of the 200-Inch Telescope Tube, Westinghouse South Philadelphia Works, 30 April 1937 [provided by Mr. Kroon].

  Control systems after Smith’s death: McDowell to Bush, 10 April 1937, 10 September 1937, 10 May 1938, 19 May 1938, 3 June 1938; Bush to McDowell, 24 May 1938; McDowell to Hannibal Ford, 31 May 1938; Poitras to McDowell, 28 July 1938, Rule.

  28. Testing

  First tests: Construction Committee minutes, 28 October 1938, Serrurier. Anderson to Max Mason, 16 September 1938, CIT/Anderson 1.17.

  Supports: Construction Committee Minutes, 26 January 1940, Huntington Library/Adams 68.1207.

  McDowell: Max Mason to Hale, 27 June 1935; Hale to Max Mason, 11 March 1936, GEB. McDowell, Final Report on the 200-Inch Telescope Project, CIT/Astrophysics 2.14. Confidential Report, Walter Adams to John Merriam, July 1936, Huntington/Adams. Warren Weaver memo, after a meeting at Caltech, 5 March 1936, GEB. Warren Weaver diary, 27 September 1938, GEB.

  Woodbury: Anderson to David Woodbury:, 2 March 1938, CIT/Anderson 2.2. Adams to Woodbury, 3 January 1939, 19 January 1939; Edward Dodd to Adams, 16 January 1939; Adams to Dodd, 23 January 1939; Huntington/Adams 72.1300. Warren Weaver diary, 4 March 1939, RF. Warren Weaver to Shapley, 17 February 1939, RF. “Comments on Draft of The Glass Giant of Palomar” [undated], CIT/Anderson 2.2.

  29. Almost

  Completion dates: AMJ interview with FBH re Pasadena trip, 1–18 April 1940, GEB. Merriam: Warren Weaver diary, 31 January 1937, GEB. Warren Weaver diary, 7 April 1937, GEB. Bush: Vannevar Bush to Warren Weaver, 20 March 1939; Warren Weaver to Fosdick, 24 March 1939, GEB. Warren Weaver diary, 17 March 1939, GEB. Warren Weaver diary, May 8/9, 1939, GEB.

  Corning: Decker to Houghton, 26 January 1937; Turbett to Decker, 28 April 1938; Sullivan to Decker, 16 March 1939, Corning.

  Millikan: Warren Weaver diary, 12 February 1941, GEB. Warren Weaver diary, 21 March 1940, GEB.

  The big Schmidt: R. B. Fosdick to Max Mason, 21 May 1937; Warren Weaver diary, 4 March 1938, GEB.

  30. Impossible Circumstances

  Optics: John Anderson, “Optics of the 200-Inch Telescope,” 23 June 1948, CIT/Anderson.

  Gears: Bruce Rule, “Engineering Aspects of the 200-Inch Telescope,” June 1948, CIT. McDowell, “Final Report,” p. 6.

  Shops: “Shops at Caltech,” Engineering & Science, June 1948, p. 13. War at Caltech, John H. Rubel, “The Committee,” Engineering & Science, Summer 1992, pp. 29–35. Samuel W. Fernberger, Technical Aide, D-2, to Warren Weaver, 28 September 1942, RF. Paul Wild, “Fritz Zwicky,” p. 394. Mason to R. B. Fosdick, 22 December 1942, RF.

  Mount Wilson during the war: Minkowski, “The Crab Nebula,” Astrophysical Journal 96 (1942), pp. 199–213. Baade, “The Resolution of Messier 32, NGC 205, and the Central Region of the Andromeda Nebula,” Astrophysical Journal 100 (1944), p. 137. “NGC 147 and NGC 185: Two New Members of the Local Group of Galaxies,” Astrophysical Journal 100 (1944), p. 147. Allan Sandage, “The Population Concept, Globular Clusters, Subdwarfs, Ages, and the Collapse of the Galaxy,” Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 24 (1986), pp. 425–28.

  31. Endless, Damnable War

  Shapley: Bush to Adams, 23 October 1944; Adams to Bush, 28 October 1944, Huntington/Adams 61.1084. Hubble: “Confidential Report of Adams to Merriam,” July 1936, Huntington/Adams. Adams to Bush, 9 January 1945. Huntington/Adams 68.120. Bush to Herbert Hoover, 14 June 1945, Huntington/Adams. Hubble to Bowen, 16 October 1945, Huntington/Hubble 408. Greenstein is quoted in Heinz R. Pagels, Perfect Symmetry (Bantam, 1986), p. 98.

  32. Starting Anew

  Starting again: Warren Weaver to Max Mason, 26 September 1945, RF. Anderson to Dr. E. D. Tillyer, 21 October 1946, CIT/Anderson 1.23. Finishing the disk: Max Mason to R. B. Fosdick, 15 June 1947, RF. Max Mason to Warren Weaver, 1 October 1947, RF.

  33. Delicate Cargoes

  Moving the mirror to Palomar: Byron Hill to Rule, 3 September 1947; Rule to Jack Belyea, 22 September 1947, CIT/Rule 9.4. Rule to Jack Belyea, 3 November 1947, CIT/Anderson 4.10. Robert S. Richardson, “The 200-Inch Mirror Goes to Palomar Mountain” (unpublished ms., Astrophysics Library, Caltech).

  34. Finishing Touches

  Hubble and the reporters: Time, 9 February 1948, pp. 56–65. “The 200-inch Telescope and Some Problems It May Solve,” Alexander F. Morrison Lecture (Pasadena, 8 April 1947), Huntington/Hubble 66. Adams to Bowen [undated], Huntington/Bowen 1.1. A handwritten note identifies the date as [c. 1946], but the letter was almost certainly written in late 1947 or early 1948.

  Coating experiments: Anderson to Robert G. Aitkey, Lick Observatory, 3 August 1933, CIT/Anderson 3.14. Pease on mirrorite, quoted in Edward G. Pendray, Men, Mirrors and Stars (Funk & Wagnalls, 1935), p. 276. Strong: Hale to Mason, 25 March 1935, RF. John Strong to J. A. Anderson, 6 March 1947, CIT/Anderson 1.21. Strong on getting it dirty first: quoted in Richard Preston, First Light (New York, 1987), p. 46. John Strong, “The Evaporation Process and Its Application to the Aluminizing of Large Telescope Mirrors,” Astrophysical Journal 83:5 (June 1936).

  Mirroring trials: Byron Hill’s notebook, 11 October 1949, Thicksten Papers, Palomar. Bolt snap, quoted in Preston, First Light, p. 47. Mason to Weaver, 30 December 1947, RF.

  Budget poetry: Warren Weaver to R. B. Fosdick, 12 December 1947, RF.

  Brown’s plans: Brown to Bruce Rule, 4 March 1950, CIT/CIT 1.

  Endowment: Max Mason to Sherman, Steely, and Wright, 6 March 1946, CIT/Observatory Council Minutes.
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  Vibration: Max Mason to Warren Weaver, 8 January 1947, RF. I. S. Bowen, “The 200-Inch Hale Telescope,” Telescopes, ed. Gerald P. Kuiper and Barbara M. Middlehurst (Chicago University Press, 1966), p. 2.

  Tuning the mirror: Byron Hill notebook, 21 December 1947, Thicksten Papers, Palomar. Mason to Warren Weaver, 28 June 1948, from Nantucket, RF.

  Lever supports: Bruce Rule, “Lever Support Systems,” Paper delivered at a symposium on Support and Testing of Large Astronomical Mirrors, Tucson, 4–6 December 1966 (KPNO and University of Arizona Press, 1968), p. 93.

  Final budgets: Max Mason to Warren Weaver, 26 November 1948, RF. Warren Weaver diary, 8–9 January 1949, RF.

  Dedication: Lee DuBridge to R. B. Fosdick, 1 March 1948; Max Mason to R. B. Fosdick [undated, probably May 1948], RF.

  Second First Light: Hubble, “First Photographs with the 200-Inch Hale Reflector” [unpublished] (14 May 1949), Huntington/Hubble. Later published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 61: 360. Jane Dietrich, “First Lights,” Engineering & Science 54:2 (Winter 1991), p. 9. Hubble, “First Photographs with the 200-inch Hale Reflector” [unpublished], Huntington.

  Final polishing: Caltech press release, 22 October 1949, RF. I. S. Bowen, “Final Adjustments and Tests of the Hale Telescope.”

  Weinberg is quoted in Alan Lightman and Roberta Brawer, Origins: the Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists (Harvard University Press, 1990), p. 452.

  Hubble on the sky survey: Handwritten memo [undated, ca. 1947], Huntington/Hubble 14.

  Final touches: Byron Hill notebook, 24 February 1949, Thicksten Papers, Palomar.

  35. Palomar Nights

  Baade and the distance scale: “A Revision of the ExtraGalactic Distance Scale,” Transactions of the International Astronomical Union 8 (1952), pp. 397–98.

  Support mechanism: I. S. Bowen, “Optical Tests and Adjustments of the 200-inch Hale telescope,” Support and Testing of Large Astronomical Mirrors, Svmposium, Tucson, 4–6 December 1966 (KPNO and University of Arizona Press, 1968), p. 101.

  Index

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

  Abbot, Charles G., 3, 4, 5, 6, 109

  Adams, Walter, 60, 91, 106, 111, 123, 129, 153, 158, 161, 227, 230, 231, 275, 297, 306, 322, 334, 336, 358, 362, 387, 393, 400

  Corning Pyrex disk manufacturing and, 200, 202, 205, 208

  description of, 360

  GE disk experiments and, 147, 155, 157, 167

  Hooker telescope project and, 47, 48, 50-51, 55, 56

  joint observatories directorship and, 359, 360, 361

  media and, 101-102, 381

  Mount Wilson-Caltech relations and, 217, 218, 219

  Palomar grant and, 74, 76, 78, 79, 80, 84

  project direction questioned by, 329

  publicity slant disliked by, 381

  retirement of, 358

  site selection and, 209, 210

  Woodbury’s book and, 329, 330

  Aitken, Robert, 109

  Allegheny Observatory, 122, 158

  Allzerican, The, 240

  American Association for the Advancement of Science (MAS), 63

  American Astronomical Society (AAS), 63, 99, 115, 138, 166, 167

  American Bridge Company, 233, 263

  American Ceramic Society, 196-197

  Anlos ‘n’ Andy, 197, 219

  Anderson, John, 92, 121, 123, 150, 152, 178, 208, 215, 217, 218, 228, 230, 259, 275, 291, 328, 334, 335, 401

  astigmatism corrected by, 325-327, 341

  committee chairmanships of, 120, 186, 209

  Corning Pyrex disk manufacturing and, 177, 244, 273, 274

  disk shipment and, 247, 248, 269

  earthquake feared by, 269

  end to polishing declared by, 367

  and final trials and adjustments, 387

  first light and, 386

  GE disk experiments and, 119, 127, 128, 129, 132, 135-136, 140, 141, 142, 146, ]57, 158, 163

  growing role of, 186-187

  illness of, 350

  and two-hundred-inch disk fractures, 274, 277, 279, 283, 298

  McDowell’s style disliked by, 295, 296, 297

  mirror coating and, 382, 383

  and mirror grinding and polishing, 182, 227, 242, 243, 270, 271, 272, 274, 277, 300, 324, 329, 341, 344-345, 350, 352, 369, 386

  mirror memorandum of, 97

  in mirror move, 374

  mounting design and, 125, 214, 216, 229, 370, 412

  optical testing done by, 324-325, 344-345, 350, 365, 367, 390

  Porter hiring and, 94-95

  site selection and, 105, 107, 108, 209, 210, 211, 212

  Woodbury’s book and, 329, 330, 331

  in World War 11, 351-352

  Andromeda (M31), 20, 22, 62, 63, 67, 258, 302, 304, 305, 353, 354-355, 392, 397, 403-404

  Angell, James Rowland, 109

  Arnett, Trevor, 105, 108, 109, 110, 111, 153, 166

  Associated Press, 225

  astronomy, 352-355

  age of universe in, 302-303, 305, 406

  astrophysics as successor to, 361-362

  distance in, 5-23, 61-69, 302-303, 403, 406

  Palomar’s contribution to, 403-407

  stellar evolution in, 305, 360

  units of measure in, 63n

  velocity in, 66-69, 148-149, 151-152, 302-303, 308, 360, 405

  Astrophysical Journal, 94, 355

  Atlas of Galaxies (Hubble), 397

  atom research, 72, 215

  Baade, Walter, 150, 258, 259, 304-305, 306, 309, 322, 334, 335, 352-355, 359, 362, 403-404, 406

  Babcock, Harold, 43

  Babcock & Wilcox, 263, 296, 297

  Bailey, Solon I., 15

  Barrows, Phil, 250

  Basich Brothers, 230

  Bateman, Harry, 178, 214

  Baum, William, 403-404

  Bausch & Lomb, 68

  Beard, George, 45

  Beech, Kenneth, 211

  Beech, Mrs. William, 180, 210

  Beech, William, 180, 210, 211, 229, 230

  Bell Telephone Labs, 226, 408

  Belyea, Jack, 374

  Belyea Truck Co., 253, 269, 374, 376, 379

  Benchley, Robert, 45, 240, 279, 299, 366

  Bethe, Hans, 305

  Bethlehem Shipbuilding, 64, 229, 262

  Bethlehem Steel, 53, 190, 289

  Big Bear Solar Observatory, 418

  Blakeslee, Howard, 225

  Bohr, Niels, 72, 148

  Born, Max, 72, 148

  Bowen, Ira, 129n, 152-153, 334, 362, 367, 374, 386, 393, 401

  appointed joint observatories director, 360-361

  background and personality of, 152-153, 361

  and final trials and adjustments, 387, 389, 391, 392n, 394, 395, 396, 397-398, 412

  Brashear, John, 30, 32

  Breasted, James, 47

  Brett, M. L., 229, 230, 255, 256, 257, 315, 337

  Briggs, Lyman, 202, 357

  Brown, Marcus “Brownie,” 253, 269, 270, 271, 274, 277, 278, 283, 299, 301, 323, 324, 326, 327, 329, 344, 345, 346, 347, 350, 352, 363, 365, 367, 369, 393

  background of, 242-243

  ending project difficult for, 367, 368, 389

  at first light, 386

  leg problems of, 350, 364, 368, 389

  in mirror move, 374-375

  mirror signed by, 375

  optical testing done by, 324-325, 365

  in Woodbury’s book, 329, 331

  in World War II, 350, 352, 364

  Brune I, Isambard Kingdom, 41

  Buckingham, Earle, 346

  Burbidge, Margaret, 306n

  Bureau of Standards, U.S., 95-96, 128, 132, t 39, 159, 357

  Burlington Route, 252

  Burnham, Sherburne Wesley, 26, 29

  Burrell, E. P., 123-124, 225

  Bush, Vannevar, 229, 310, 320, 334,
347, 357, 385, 393

  joint observatories director appointed by, 358-361

  Palomar endowment assured by, 336-340

  Butler, Nicholas, 36

  Buwalda, J. P., 209

  Caldwell, Cy, 197-198

  California:

  in Great Depression, 159-160

  in 1920s, 112-113

  in post-World War II era, 372

  California, University of, 366

  California Highway Patrol, 376

  California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 59, 90, 92, 112, 120, 125, 161, 214

  antisubmarine bomb research at, 352

  astrophysics laboratory at, 125, 151, 160, 213

  astrophysics machine shop at, 154, 257, 265, 346, 350, 364, 370, 392

  budget problems and, 387-389, 391-392

  California Street optics laboratory of, 154-155, 160, 187, 195, 213, 243, 269-270, 334, 347, 350, 389; see also mirror, Palomar two-hundred-inch

  endowment and, 91, 114, 131, 335-340, 358

  faculty recruited for, 151-152

  Geology Department of, 209, 211

  in Great Depression, 159-160

  growth of, 113-114, 148-150

  Mount Wilson’s tense relations with, 150-151, 217-219, 335-340, 418

  Palomar grant and, 75, 76, 78, 79, 86, 87, 88, 91, 105

  site selection and, 209, 211

  in World War II, 347-349, 363-364

  Carlson, Llewellyn, 318

  Carnegie, Andrew, 8, 36, 47, 48, 70, 77

  Mount Wilson visited by, 44-45

  NAS building funded by, 82-83

  Rockefeller’s rivalry with, 81-82, 86

  Carnegie Institution, 36-40, 75-76, 111-112, 159, 165, 208, 335-340

  establishment of, 36

  Hooker telescope project and, 42, 43, 47, 90

  Mount Wilson-Caltech relations and, 217, 219, 335-340, 417-418

  Palomar endowed by, 335-340, 358, 389, 391