_Practically all the telescopes used by amateur scientists in
18th-century America were of European origin. Our dependence upon foreign
sources for these instruments continued well into the 19th century, and
the beginning of telescope making in this country has conventionally been
associated with the names of Alvan Clark and John Brashear, whose work
dates from the 1860’s._
_Presented here are biographical sketches of two predecessors and a
contemporary of Clark and Brashear whose obscurity is not deserved. The
accounts relate some hitherto little-known aspects of telescope making in
America as it progressed from mechanic art to science._
THE AUTHOR _of the Introduction, Robert P. Multhauf, is head curator of
the department of science and technology in the United States National
Museum, Smithsonian Institution._