Thomas Grubb

Thomas Grubb
Site of his first Engineering Works & Observatory

Thomas Grubb (4 August 1800 – 16 September 1878) was an Irish optician and founder of the Grubb Telescope Company.[1]

He was born near Portlaw, County Waterford, Ireland, the son of William Grubb Junior, a prosperous Quaker farmer and his second wife, Eleanor Fayle.[1]

Thomas started out in 1830 in Dublin as a metal billiard-table manufacturer. He diversified into making telescopes and erected a public observatory near his factory at 1 Upper Charlemont Street, Portobello, Dublin. As makers of some of the largest and best-known telescopes of the Victorian era, the company was at the forefront of optical and mechanical engineering.[2] His innovations for large telescopes included clock-driven polar mounts, whiffletree mirror mounting cells and Cassegrain reflector optics.[3] Later, the manufacturing firm changed its name to Grubb-Parsons in 1925.[1]

  1. ^ a b c McCartney, Mark; Whitaker, Andrew (2003). Physicists of Ireland Passion and Precision. London: Institute of Physics. p. 52. ISBN 978-0750308663.
  2. ^ Glass, I.S. (1997). Victorian Telescope Makers: The Lives and Letters of Thomas and Howard Grubb. Institute of Physics Publishing (Taylor and Francis). ISBN 0-7503-0454-5.
  3. ^ A Short History of Armagh Observatory