The Perfect Machine (80 page)

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McCauley: “Glass for the Lens Maker” [unpublished, 18 November 1940] McCauley Papers, Corning Museum. “Corning Glass Works and Astronomical Telescopes” [unpublished], Corning, November 1965, p. 8. G. V. McCauley, “Electrically Controlled Cooling of a 200-Inch Telescope Disk” [unpublished], 25 March 1936, Corning.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. Anderson 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.

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 Extra-Galactic 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.