The References

Watercolour Illustration
(perhaps by G. F. Sargent 1853)
Corporation of London
Director of Libraries and Guildhall Art Gallery
Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, London EC2P 2EJ
020 7606 3030
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

Article in SW magazine
"Reach for the stars"
July 2002
Peter de Loriol
Feelance Writer and genealogist

Article in Wandsworth Society Newsletter
Wandsworth Society
Shirley Passmore
25 Spencer Park, Wandsworth Common, London SW18 2TB
Wandsworth Library
various small references published over the years in magazines and journals
Wandsworth Local Historical Reference Libray
265 Lavender Hill, Wandsworth, London
020 8871 7753

Maps
various maps from old original sources
Ordnance Survey
Southampton, Hampshire
023 8079 2000

Astronomical references
Royal Astronomical Society
Library, Burlington House, Picadilly, London
020 7734 4582

Specific interest in the telescope
Stewart McLaughlin
46 Lingwell Road, Tooting, London SW17 7NJ

Article in Illustrated London News
28 August 1852 p.168
Illustrated London News
20 Upper Ground, London SE1 9PF
020 7805 5585
www.ilng.co.uk

Article in New Scientist
2 December 1982 p.571
New Scientist
151 Wardour Street, London, W1F 8WE
020 8652 3500

Dagguerotype of telescope
by Richard Beard
National Photographic and Cinemaphotography Museum
Bradford
0274 202030

Records of the estate on Wandsworth Common
Northampton Records Office
Wootton Hall Park, Northampton, NN4 8BQ
01604 762129

Astronomical historian
Dr Allan Chapman
Wadham College, Oxford, OX1 3PN

Article:- J B Reade and the early history of photography
item about "On Photographs of the Moon and the Sun".
Mr R Dereck Wood
Photography historian
www.midleykent.fsnet.co.uk/Reade/readebib1.htm

Richard Panek, author of "Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope Opened Our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens" (Penguin, 1999).

Various references sited by
Dr Duncan Steel
Reader in Space Technology
University of Salford
http://www.salford.ac.uk/
physics/staff/d.i.steel/Many grateful thanks for all his excellent and helpful assistance.

JBAA in 1992 (volume 102, p.315) about the site of the Craig Telescope.

Sky & Telescope: July 1982, pp.12-13. A Roland Rainge wrote a letter to S&T (p.72, July 1983) discussing the telescope's possible resolving power.

Sir David Brewster wrote several times about the Craig Telescope.
See:
(a) M.M.Gordon, The Home Life of Sir David Brewster, 2nd ed., Edmonston & Douglas, Edinburgh, 1870, p.252.
(b) D.B., address to the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution on 11 November 1851 (note 1851), as reprinted in "British Eloquence of the Nineteenth Century", 1855.
(c) Major piece: D.B.'s "A Treatise on Optics", Longman's, London, 1853, pp.506-508. This is the source of the lithograph in Henry C. King's "History of the Telescope."

Illustrated London News, 28 August 1852, p.168

ILN, 23rd October 1852, p.330: has a letter from Craig. This follows on the article on 16th October 1852, which had a sketch of Saturn as seen through the telescope.

The Times of 23rd August 1852 carried a longish article about the telescope. This occasioned a letter (printed in the edition of 25th August 1852) from Thomas Slater, who says that he carried out the optical work. By 1858 Slater had an observatory set up in Euston Road, which was said to contain the "largest refractor at present in use in this kingdom" (ILN, ?? Oct 1858, volume 33, pp.387-388).

The "Annual of Scientific Discovery" for 1853 carries a long article about the Craig Telescope, on pp.154-157. (edited by David A. Wells, Gould and Lincoln, Boston, Mass.)

At the BAAS meeting in July 1851 it was said by the Astronomer Royal (Airy) that Ross (not Rosse) was attempting a lens of 2-feet diameter. This was Alexander Ross, who built many fine refractors around that time & had a major exhibit at the Exhibition of 1851. See: Grant, History of Physical Astronomy, 1852, p.536; and Presidential Address of Sir George Biddell Airy, Report of the BAAS, 1851, p.41.

Harper's Book of Facts (NY, 1895) lists the Craig Telescope as "very imperfect" under the heading "Telescopes", but does not include it in the list of succeeding large refractors under "Observatory."

The location of the Craig Telescope is described in "Old and New London" (1893), p.482.

The death of John Craig's wife Jane Helena on 7th March 1854 is noted on p.446 of the Gentleman's Magazine, volume XLI, Jan-June 1854.

The BAAS Reports for 1855 (note 1855) says that photographs of the Craig Telescope were exhibited by Dr Lee (see p.12). This is later than one might have expected (?).

The 4th Earl Spencer loaned the land for the Craig Telescope to be built on. Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, was the daughter of the 8th Earl Spencer.

Other places where the Craig Telescope was mentioned include:
C. Piazzi Smythe, Transactions of the Roy Soc Edinburgh, vol 23, p.371, 1861.

von Jacquin, Athenaeum, II, p.924, 1852 (also in the Revue Britanique).
G.A.Jahn, "Das Craig-Teleskop", Unterhaltungen fur Dilettenten und Freunde der Astronomie, Geographie und Witterungskunde, VI, p.332, 1852.

Grover, Astronomical Register, VII, p.23, p.65, 1870.

Burton, Astronomical Register, X, p.289, 1873.

H. Grubb, Trans. Irish Acad., I, #1, 1878.

Matt Considine
Supply of mechanical and scientific historical references.http://www.considine.net/
matt@considine.net

History of Fetcham, 1998, Letherhead & District Local History Society Ed:- J C Stuttard