By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower
A resolution finally came, at the end
of last month, to the dispute over a historic time capsule found
during emergency demolition of the historic factory where 19th and
20th-century Astronomer John A. Brashear produced telescopes and
scientific instruments used, and some still in use, throughout the
world. Also, one of those historic telescopes has now been retired.
Pittsburgh's Senator John Heinz History
Center, which has held temporary custody of the time capsule and
contents since April, has become the permanent home of this
collection of historic relics. And, some relatives of John Brashear
have now donated an additional 40 historic papers and artifacts to
the History Center, including Mr. Brashear's Last Will and Testament.
Bart Fried, President of the Antique
Telescope Society, consulted with the Heinz History Center in the
effort to preserve the historic contents of the Brashear Time
Capsule. In a June 29 electronic mail message, Mr. Fried said, “The
Sen. John Heinz History Center reached a sales agreement with
Minniefield Construction for the rights to the time capsule;
Minniefield avoiding costly litigation and the city avoiding
potentially damaging press.”
He added, “It's nice to see cooler
heads prevailed.” Mr. Fried is a historian, writing a book on John
Brashear.
The legal battle over the custody of
the Brashear Time Capsule and its historic documents and artifacts,
which included an April 1 hearing in the Allegheny County Court of
Common Pleas, began after the time capsule was found among the debris
during the demolition of the John A. Brashear Company Telescope
Factory, located along Perrysville Avenue on Old Observatory Hill
(now called Perry Hilltop) on Pittsburgh's North Side (just up the
hill from the original Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular
Science), at the end of March. The City of Pittsburgh, which had
owned the National Register of Historic Places-listed building since
2012, reluctantly decided that the building had to be razed after one
wall of the vacant factory collapsed onto a neighboring apartment
building.
The emergency contract for demolition
was given to the Jadell Minniefield Construction Company of the
Hazelwood section of the city. However, when the demolition
contractor found the Brashear Time Capsule, he claimed that the
contract gave him the right of ownership to all salvageable material,
including the time capsule. After the Heinz History Center received
temporary custody of the historic artifacts, negotiations between the
City and Minniefield Construction resumed until an agreement was
reached.
John Brashear placed the time capsule
in a cornerstone of the factory building on 1894 August 14. Built as
a brick structure, this was the second construction of the factory
building. The factory started as a frame structure, at the same site,
in May of 1886.
This building was home to the John A.
Brashear Company which had manufactured hundreds of telescopes and
precise scientific instruments for observatories and scientific
institutions throughout the world, in the latter part of the 19th
century and the first half of the 20th century.
Philanthropist and Pennsylvania
Railroad Vice President William Thaw, Sr. provided this building, and
also a new home next-door, to John Brashear free-of-charge, as Mr.
Thaw's personal donation to scientific research. Both buildings,
which were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012,
were less than a block from the original Allegheny Observatory, where
John Brashear assisted Observatory Director Samuel Pierpont Langley
(who went on to become the third Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution, then the greatest scientific appointment in America).
With limited formal education, John
Brashear had transformed his love of Astronomy into a business, due
to his expert craftsmanship in producing exquisite optics for
telescopes and other instruments. He was Acting Director of the
Allegheny Observatory, and later Acting Chancellor of the Western
University of Pennsylvania (today's University of Pittsburgh),
refusing permanent appointment to both positions. He, along with two
other civic leaders, assisted Andrew Carnegie in designing the
Carnegie Technical Schools (known today as Carnegie Mellon
University).
John Brashear and his family continued
living in the house, and Mr. Brashear continued his telescope-making
business in the factory building, all rent-free until Mr. Brashear's
death in 1920. John Brashear's former North Side house is in good
condition and is currently being used as a half-way house for men
with chemical dependencies.
The ashes of John Brashear and his wife
Phoebe, as well as those of another former Allegheny Observatory
Director, James E. Keeler, and two members of Dr. Keeler's family,
are interred in a special crypt in the basement of the new Allegheny
Observatory (which John Brashear single-handedly raised the funds to
build in 1912) in Riverview Park.
One of the telescopes John Brashear
produced, at the factory building, has now been retired at the
University of Toledo. A photograph of this 6-inch refractor telescope, as installed in the university's Brooks Observatory, is shown at the beginning of this blog post (Image Source: University of Toledo).
The Brooks Observatory, located on the sixth
floor of McMaster Hall on the campus of the University of Toledo, is
undergoing an $80,000 renovation which will include the installation
of a new and larger telescope. The project also includes temporarily
removing the dome and slightly shortening the size of the
observatory, to improve telescope sight-lines. The renovation project
is expected to be completed by the Autumn.
The venerable, 6-inch Brashear
refractor telescope, which is more than a century old and has served
this northwest Ohio campus since 1931, is being replaced by a 14-inch
Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector telescope, titled a Celestron EdgeHD 14.
Next door, the University of Toledo's
College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics also operates the Ritter
Observatory, with a 42-inch Ritchey-Chretien reflector telescope,
along with the Ritter Planetarium which has a 40-foot planetarium
dome. The Ritchey-Chretien telescope, installed in 1967, is
considered the largest optical telescope in Ohio, and the largest
from Ohio to the Mississippi River.
The historic Brashear telescope, with a
beautiful 7-foot brass tube, was a gift to the University of Toledo.
It was first installed atop the university's University Hall until it
was placed in storage in the late 1970s. In 1987, it was installed in
a new observatory, named for the late Astronomy Professor Helen
Brooks and her husband, Elgin. The couple generously supported
Astronomy programs at the University of Toledo, and part of the
current renovation project is being funded by an endowment
established by the Brooks.
The historic Brashear telescope will be
placed in storage and may be displayed some time in the future.
Special Thanks: Bart Fried, President,
Antique Telescope Society.
More on the Brashear Time Capsule dispute resolution:
Link 1 >>> http://www.post-gazette.com/local/2015/06/27/Brashear-time-capsule-provides-glimpse-to-Pittsburgh-s-past/stories/201506270047
Link 2 >>> http://wesa.fm/post/brashears-time-capsule-opened-heinz-history-center
Link 3 >>> http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2015/06/26/120-year-old-time-capsule-opened-despite-custody-battle/
Link 4 >>> http://www.wtae.com/news/heinz-history-center-unveils-brashear-time-capsule/33801106
More on the Senator John Heinz History Center:
Link 1 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_History_Center
Link 2 >>> http://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/
Short KQV-AM 1410 NewsRadio / History Center Audio Feature on John Brashear:
Link >>> http://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/John-Brashear.mp3
More on the University of Toledo's historic Brashear telescope ---
Brooks Observatory: Link 1 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Observatory
Link 2 >>> https://www.utoledo.edu/nsm/rpbo/brooks.html
News Article on Brooks Observatory renovations:
Link >>> http://www.toledoblade.com/Education/2015/06/26/UT-observatory-to-house-new-telescope.html
Photographs of Brashear Telescope Factory Building Time Capsule Contents, from the Al Paslow Astronomy Collection:
Link >>> http://al-paslow.smugmug.com/Other/John-Brashear-Time-Capsule/48206094_Grz6HB#!i=3951044359&k=RCqKLfF
More on John A. Brashear: Link >>> http://johnbrashear.tripod.com/
More on the Allegheny Observatory: Link >>> http://www.pitt.edu/~aobsvtry/
John Brashear - Links to Special Resources: Brashear Telescope Factory Building:
Link >>> http://johnbrashear.tripod.com/speciallinks/brashearfactory.html
Related Blog Posts ---
"Update: Historic Brashear Time Capsule." 2015 April 9.
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2015/04/this-4-inch-refractor-telescope-was.html
"Dispute: Ownership of Brashear Time Capsule." 2015 March 26.
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2015/03/dispute-ownership-of-brashear-time.html
"Historic Brashear Telescope Factory Time Capsule Found & Opened."
2015 March 25.
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2015/03/brashear-telescope-factory-time-capsule.html
"Historic Brashear Telescope Factory Wall Collapses." 2015 March 18.
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2015/03/historic-brashear-telescope-factory.html
"Brashear House & Factory: Nomination to National Register of Historic Places." 2012 Oct. 11.
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2012/10/nomination-to-national-register-of.html
"Historic Nomination: John Brashear House & Factory, Pittsburgh." 2012 Sept. 13.
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2012/09/historic-nomination-john-brashear-house.html
"Centennial: New Allegheny Observatory Dedication." 2012 Aug. 28.
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2012/08/centennial-new-allegheny-observatory.html
"Mystery: Brashear Telescope Donated by Frick to Pittsburgh Suburb Missing for Decades." 2012 May 7.
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2012/05/mystery-brashear-telescope-donated-by.html
"Pittsburgh's Allegheny Observatory: New History Film." 2012 April 19.
Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2012/04/pittsburghs-allegheny-observatory-new.html
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gaw
Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
SpaceWatchtower Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Also see: South Hills Backyard Astronomers Blog: < http://shbastronomers.blogspot.com/ >
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Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
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Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
< http://www.planetarium.
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
< http://adlerplanetarium.
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
< http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
< http://www.andrewcarnegie.
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
< http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
< http://inclinedplane.tripod.
* Public Transit:
< http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.
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