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Grateful thanks to all those that have provided many of the articles, references and details in these pages
This is a non-profit site |
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What possible reason could there be
for Craig wishing to build his huge telescope?
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Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in the Industrial Revolution.
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Why did Craig want to build this enormous telescope? What was it that drove him to think up such a radical idea? And just what must it have been like for a man such as John Craig in his position in society?
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For several years the Craig Telescope was to be the largest in the world. |
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As far as we can tell, he had had the idea around the year 1848 or 1849 to build the world's largest refracting telescope. He knew it was going to be big, All Saints Church was big, so why not the telescope?
Craig must have known of the size of telescopes around the world and this may have coloured his opinion as to the size of the object glass for his huge refractor.
He had experience with building projects, having been involved with the construction of four churches and several school houses, so he was well acquainted with all the necessary project management. Once he got the idea for the telescope it would have been just another project that needed managing, albeit a big one.
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Research has found that William Gravatt had once been in Leamington while surveying for the railways, so there is a very tenuous link between both Craig and Gravatt, the engineer. But the connection could well have been made during one of Craig's many visits to the south in and around London. Quite how he made contact with other members of his telescope team, such as Mr Thomas Slater or the Rev. J B Reade is a little bit more of a mystery.
There was also Mr William M Wilson, the founder of Price's Candle Factory, who lived in Vauxhall only a short way from the Wandsworth Common. It was he that played the crucial role in getting Craig the piece of land so desperately needed for his "monster" ‘scope. What was Craig's connection with him.
Once the project was under way, much had to be organised. Firstly, to get his idea turned from a fanciful dream into reality. Gravatt, a most admirable engineer whose experience is well documented throughout this site, would have discussed in some detail the inner workings of the telescope and how it was going to be constructed.
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A wealthy victorian dinner party. |
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We know that there is a single mention of a model having been built in order to better understand some of the telescope's idiosyncrasies. Today, its whereabouts is unknown although it is most probably lost with many of the telescope's other parts. We know nothing of its size, but in order for it to be useful it would have to have been at least half a metre tall. This size would have meant that it could have been transported to various locations and although we do not truly know its purpose, it might have played a role in enticing sponsors for the immensely expensive project. Perhaps the fund raisers such as John Craig' brother, Robert, and Francis Mitchell were encouraged to finance the enterprise once they had sight of the model. It may have been a fully working miniature having all the necessary moving parts to demonstrate exactly how they fitted into the overall telescope structure. All the pulleys, chains and rails may have worked just as they would have done on the full size version.
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In the first part of the 19th century Wandsworth, Lambeth and Battersea were governed by vestries which in the main lacked the power to do much except collect local rates. The vestry system was maintained right up to the end of the 1800s when a more metropolitan government practice was put in place. We know that it was an act of Parliament that saw to the preservation order being invoked on the Wandsworth Common in 1871. The fact that these large swathes of metropolitan life were vestry run may also have been yet another way John Craig was familiar with the area.
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Clearly seen is the large Cooke Refractor erected in one of the great halls within the Crystal Palace at Sydenham during the Great Exhibition of 1851. Illustration from Tallis' History and Description of the Crystal Palace.
Courtesy Cornall University Library.
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Wealthy land owners in the Victorian era often had many pastimes. These included writing and reading on aspects of society, indulging in discussion groups on a wide variety of topics and discoursing on the sciences, religion and politics. A few were even pressed to venture to new lands and achieve feasts that were, up to that time, beyond the dreams of most. The study of astronomy in Britain, at any level, was not funded by the government, unlike that on the continent. It was the domain of the wealthy - amateurs who founded learned societies, commissioned telescopes and built observatories - even in their own back gardens! Indeed, new telescope technologies and observation provided a wealth of material for explanation and theorisation, undertaken in the secluded, secretive rooms of gentlemens' clubs.
Often, in the evening, after dinner, the gentlemen would retire to the lounge for port, brandy and cigars. It was at times like these that the host would, on clear nights, show aspects of the heavens through his own household telescope. The Earl Spencer may have felt fully satisfied that his indulgence would be the most spectacular. It might have been that on more than one occasion when the weather was clear, an "astronomer" would have been on duty at the Craig Telescope in order to show the heavens to those very guests.
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| The beautiful Dorpat refractor at Harvard College was the largest refracting telescope in the world until 1852. |
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