The Great Paris Exhibition Telescope of 1900

Faideau Ferdinand , Exposition Universelle de 1900: Guide du Palais de l'Optique (Paris, 1900), 3.

Trépied Charles , “L'observation de la Lune à courte distance”, Ciel et Terre, xiii (1892–93), 393–401.

Flammarion Camille , “The science of astronomy in the year 1900: Progress in optical instruments, and the great telescope of the exposition”, The cosmopolitan (New York), xxix (1900), 165–9, p. 169.

Deloncle François , “The first Moon-photographs taken with the Great Paris Telescope”, Strand magazine, xx (1900), 493–7, p. 493.

(i) Capus Alfred , “L'inauguration de la Lune”, L'illustration , 10 September 1892, 203; (ii) Ch[arles] Gilbert-Martin , “Le décrocheur de Lune”, Le Don Quichotte, 11 September 1892; and (iii) [Joseph Vinot], “Ze veux la Lune, na!”, Cosmos, xxiii (1892), 1892–6.

Deloncle , op. cit. (ref. 4), 493.

When this text was written, in 1898, the distance of ‘one metre’ had been corrected.

de Coubertin Pierre , “Building up a world's fair in France”, The century magazine, lvii (1898), 114–26.

Several such papers are quoted by Faideau Ferdinand , “La Lune à un mètre”, in Encyclopédie du siècle, Exposition de Paris, ii (Paris 1900), 3–5, 13.

Ashbrook Joseph , “The great Paris telescope fiasco”, in The astronomical scrapbook (Cambridge, MA, 1984), 179–83.

Bennett Jim Brain Robert Schaffer Simon Sibum Heinz Otto Staley Richard , 1900: The New Age. A guide to the exhibition (Cambridge, 1994).

“Anyone on the Moon?”, Daily Mail (London), 2 November 1898.

In fact, only the disks awaiting polishing were exhibited in the astronomical museum of the exhibition [see Parr W. Alfred , “The Berlin exhibition”, The Journal of the British Astronomical Association, vii (1896–97), 76–77], and the relevant objective was never completed.

Barré L. , “La Grande Lunette de 1900”, La nature, 11 February 1899, 167–70.

(i) Vandevyver L.-N. , “La Grande Lunette de 1900”, Ciel et Terre, xix (1898–99), 257–67; (ii) J[oseph] D[ésiré] Lucas S. J. , “La Lunette de l'Exposition de 1900”, Revue des questions scientifiques, xiv (1898), 1898–44, and xv (1899), 697–704; (iii) “The large telescope of the Paris exhibition”, English mechanic and world of science, 14 April 1899, 191; (iv) “An astronomical theatre for Paris”, Daily Mail (London), 26 April 1899; (v) “The great telescope of the Paris exhibition of 1900”, Scientific American, 4 November 1899, 297–9; (vi) Lockyer Norman , “The great Paris telescope”, Nature, lxi (1899), 1899–81; (vii) “Les explorateurs du ciel”, Lecture pour tous, i (1999), 1999–6; and (viii) Maurice Normand, “La Lune à un mètre”, L'illustration, 31 March 1900, 198–201.

“Only 41 miles away, an enormous new telescope to bring the Moon close to Earth”, Daily Mail (London), 30 March 1899.

(i) “The great telescope at the Paris exhibition”, The engineer , 11 May 1900, 489–90; (ii) “Das Riesenfernrohr der Pariser Weltausstellung 1900”, Astronomische Rundschau, ii (1900), 1900–20; (iii) “How the great Paris telescope was built”, Strand magazine, xix (1900), 1900–18; (iv) de Fonvielle Wilfrid , “Le Palais de l'Optique et la grande lunette”, Cosmos, xliii (1900), 1900–32; (v) Combes Paul , “La grande lunette de 1900”, in Encyclopédie du siècle, Exposition de Paris, i (Paris, 1900), 110–12; and (vi) F[erdinand] Faideau , “Le Palais de l'Optique”, in L'encyclopédie du siècle, Exposition de Paris, ii (Paris, 1900), 41–44, 65–67, 76–78.

Gautier Paul , “Note sur le sidérostat à lunette de 60 m de foyer et de 1,25 m d'ouverture”, in Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes pour 1899 (Paris, 1898), C1–C26.

Brenni Paolo , “19^th century French scientific instrument makers. XI: The Brunners and Paul Gautier”, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, no. 49 (1996), 3–8.

This seems completely forgotten and I wish to thank Mr Michel Prin, the son of Gautier's successor, who gave me a copy of the relevant catalogue.

The very skilful opticians Paul (1848–1905) and Prosper (1849–1903) Henry had the position of astronomers at the Paris Observatory.

Gautier , op. cit. (ref. 18), C22.

Gautier Paul , “Construction d'un miroir plan de 2 m de diamètre par des procédés mécaniques”, Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences, cxxviii (1899), 1373–5.

I thank Randy and Yulia Lieberman for supplying this photograph. It is worth noting that this image was used to make a coloured engraving published in L'illustration (ref. 15, viii).

Flammarion , op. cit. (ref. 3), 168.

Péridier J.-M. , “L'astronomie à l'exposition de 1900”, Cosmos, xliii (1900), 438–42, p. 441.

“La grande lunette de l'exposition de 1900”, Cosmos, lx (1909), 643–4.

Moreux Théophile , Les merveilles des mondes (Paris, c. 1911), 29.

Berget Alphonse Rudaux Lucien , Le ciel (Paris, 1923), 197.

Débarbat Suzanne Launay Françoise , “The objectives of the ‘Great Paris Exhibition Telescope’ of 1900”, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, no. 74 (2002), 22–23.

I thank Daniel Crussaire for his efficient help in this delicate task.

I thank Henri Meyer for supplying a copy of this photograph from the Parra-Mantois archives.

Georges Prin (1885–1959).

In 1909.

Ritchey Georges W. , The development of astro-photography and the great telescopes of future (Paris, 1929), Plate 3.

Moreux Théophile , “Sur les taches solaires à propos de la grande tache observée le 17 juin à la grande lunette de 1900”, Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences, cxxx (1900), 1742–4.

Moreux Abbé , “Grande tache observée le 17 juin à la grande Lunette de 1900”, Cosmos, xliii (1900), 36–37.

Nordmann was later to become an astronomer at the Paris Observatory.

Antoniadi Eugène , “L'étude des nébuleuses dans la grande lunette de l'exposition”, Bulletin de la Société Astronomique de France, xiv (1900), 375–6, 385–7, 459–60.

Antoniadi Eugène , “The great telescope of Paris, 1900”, Knowledge, 1 November 1900, 246–51.

Letter from Antoniadi to Flammarion dated 1 March 1900, Fonds Flammarion, Juvisy, with a drawing reproduced by McKim Richard , “The life and times of E. M. Antoniadi, 1870–1944. Part 1: An astronomer in the making”, The journal of the British Astronomical Association, ciii (1993), 164–70, p. 168.

Butler was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1908.

Butler Charles Pritchard , “A night with the great Paris telescope”, Nature, lxii (1900), 574–6.

Deloncle , op. cit. (ref. 4).

Lœwy Maurice Puiseux Pierre , Atlas photographique de la Lune (Paris, 1896–1910).