{"id":9822,"date":"2019-01-29T11:19:24","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T17:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maryville.edu\/mpress\/?p=9822"},"modified":"2019-01-29T11:19:24","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T17:19:24","slug":"rare-telescope-part-of-maryville-university-archives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maryville.edu\/mpress\/rare-telescope-part-of-maryville-university-archives\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare Telescope Part of 91制片厂 Archives"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the unique treasures in the 91制片厂 Archives is a telescope that is displayed in the Heritage Room. The telescope is a portable Brashear telescope and is one of 80 known to still exist. Maryville\u2019s telescope is dated circa 1886\u20131895 but is presumed to have been bought secondhand for Maryville by Mother Kernaghan.<\/p>\n

Brashear telescopes have a contemporary following inspired not just by the telescopes, but also by the story of the telescope’s\u00a0creator. The John A. Brashear Company\u2019s roots trace back to John Brashear\u2019s coal shed on the south side of Pittsburgh in the early 1880s. John Brashear worked at a rolling steel mill during the day and in his shed on a refracting lens (a lens used in telescopes and spyglasses for long focus) at night with his wife, Phoebe. After three years, he produced his first five-inch refracting lens, then went on to produce a 12-inch lens. During this time, he invented a process to silver the lens, the \u201cBrashear process,\u201d that became the standard for more than 50 years. After publishing his process in\u00a0Scientific American<\/em>\u00a0and continuing to make lenses at night, Brashear received a grant to\u00a0build\u00a0his own workshop.<\/p>\n

Maryville\u2019s Brashear telescope is three inches in diameter and has recently been added to a census of all Brashear portable telescopes left in the United States. The telescope is believed to have come to Maryville\u00a0under the direction of Mother Kernaghan. Mother Kernaghan taught science at Maryville for almost 60 years\u00a0and was the first woman to earn a doctorate from St. Louis University.<\/p>\n

The old Maryville campus on Meramec was\u00a0situated high above the Mississippi River,\u00a0an ideal\u00a0place for stargazing.\u00a0In the 1930s,\u00a0the Science Club would\u00a0learn\u00a0new\u00a0constellations and view astronomical slides before attending star gazing sessions with Mother Kernaghan after Holy Hour every First Thursday.\u00a0In later years, the club made it a rule\u00a0of thumb\u00a0to show two films at each meeting with titles like:\u00a0Exploring the Universe.<\/em>\u00a0The club was so active it even took a field trip to Famous Barr to see\u00a0an atomic energy exhibit.<\/p>\n

This past summer,\u00a0Fran and Jim\u00a0Debaun\u00a0(’95) visited the Heritage Room to see Maryville’s Brashear telescope. Jim measured the telescope lens’ diameter to help determine the exact year it was manufactured. Fran has accompanied Jim on several telescope adventures, serving as his photographer. The photographs and information Fran and Jim collected have\u00a0entered\u00a0a census of Brashear telescopes maintained by the Antique Telescope Society.<\/p>\n

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