Nights of Future Passed

A well-known name from early in the last century, Broadhurst, Clarkson, and Company (later Broadhurst, Clarkson, and Fuller) is still around today, though it no longer manufactures telescopes.  The retail end of the business, known as the Telescope House in Kent, imports telescopes from the U.S. as well as other sources, while the parent company concentrates on the wholesale distribution and specialist supplier side of the business.

Thanks to Roger Gibbs of Masterton, New Zealand, for forwarding these scans.

One of the era's most famous and collectible instruments, the Porter Garden Telescope was the brainchild of Russell W. Porter, the father of the amateur telescope making movement that started in the 1920s and continues today.  Porter's club, the Springfield Telescope Makers, continues the traditional today by hosting the annual Stellafane convention in Springfield, Vermont.

This link leads to a 15-page brochure describing the telescope.

Related to the above, here is an article I wrote back in 1988 on the history of Stellafane and the convention of amateur telescope telescope makers held annually in Springfield, Vermont. The article was submitted for consideration in the 1988 astronomy writers contest held by the Griffith Observer magazine.  It took 2nd place.

This 80-year-old collection of telescopes and mountings comes from across the pond in the United Kingdom.  These ads the appeared in a magazine called "Hutchinson's Splendour of the Heavens" published 1924.

Thanks to Roger Gibbs of Masterton, New Zealand, for forwarding these scans.

Three more vintage advertisements from London, this time showcasing refractors from W. Watson and Sons, Ltd, of London.

Thanks again to Roger Gibbs of Masterton, New Zealand, for forwarding these scans.