Instruments

1940 — 220 p. + Frontis. Original blue cloth binding. Original dust jacket. Dr. John Alfred Brashear was born in 1840 at Brownsville, Fayette, County, Pa., southeast of Pittsburgh. He later moved to the Steel City, and despite the smoky skies so prevalent in his day, Brashear's love of the night sky never waned. Brashear built his first telescope in his South Side home in the early 1870s. His optical prowess is apparent even today - many of the telescopes he made still are in use around the world. Moreover, the one-time John Brashear Co. has evolved to become the Contraves Corp., an internationally known maker of superb optics. In its underground facility near Wampum, Pa., Contraves is working on the completion of the 8-meter mirror for the Subaru Telescope, to be installed in Hawaii. Brashear died April, 1920. His remains and those of his wife Phoebe are interned in the crypt beneath the Keeler Memorial Reflecting Telescope at Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh's Riverview Park. Brashear, a one-time director of Allegheny Observatory, is the man most responsible for its construction. The plaque in the observatory's crypt. reads: "We have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night." PA 48 x4