In 1928, the famed astronomer, George Ellery Hale, had a vision. He wanted to build the world“s largest telescope – a research instrument that would allow scientists to view the skies as never before…
In 1928, the famed astronomer, George Ellery Hale, had a vision. He wanted to build the world“s largest telescope – a research instrument that would allow scientists to view the skies as never before. The 200-inch Disk and the Hale Reflecting Telescope at Palomar, an exhibit that opened at the Rakow Research Library of The Corning Museum of Glass on 10 January 2011, tells the story of the creation of the 200-inch mirror blank (known by the American public at the time as The Giant Eye) in the 1930s that made Hale“s vision possible. The creation of the largest single piece of glass ever made was entrusted by Hale in 1929 to Corning Glass Works using their signature Pyrex, a special glass designed to resist heat expansion. George V. McCauley, a Corning physicist and engineer, set about achieving what engineers at other companies had failed to do: casting a 200-inch mirror blank. The largest mirror at that time, which was installed in the Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson, CA, measured 100 inches. Photographs in the exhibition show the intensive process of the pouring of the disk and include imagery of the special railroad car that carried it across the country. The disk travelled upright on a padded railroad car for more than two weeks. The train travelled only by daylight and at speeds not exceeding 25 miles per hour. It made numerous stops along the way, with much fanfare in each city where it stopped. Mirror to Discovery includes photographs, memorabilia, and other selected historic materials from the collections of the Library, as well as reproductions of photographs from the California Institute of Technology. The exhibit will remain on view at the Rakow Research Library until 30 October 2011, during the Museum“s 60th anniversary year. The Rakow Research Library, founded as part of The Corning Museum of Glass in 1951, is a public institution that contains the world“s foremost collection of materials related to the history of glass and glassmaking.