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With-Browning 1878 reflector restoration
A few years ago whilst participating on an astronomy forum (Ravenshoe), one of the more notable members Alex Evans (Xelasnave) offered me some old parts of a telescope during an active discussion on reflectors. I said at the time that I would have it, because I thought it was a working telescope that might have needed a little work.
When Alex arrived at my place a few weeks later with a box of brass parts and a primary and secondary mirror, I thought he was playing a practical joke on me, but I soon came to realise that Alex was very serious. He gave me the parts, shook hands and departed mysteriously and thus a new adventure had begun.
Knowing nothing about telescopes at all, I turned to the astronomy community and requested help, I started asking questions and opening threads of discussion and several wonderful people were very helpful. Eventually Barry Armstead of Asign Observatory stepped up and volunteered to do the rebuilding which was fantastic however he lived in another state, but regardless we formed a pact to rebuild the telescope back to its former glory.
Of course, what was its former glory? My role in the rebuild was to do the research whilst Barry did the physical fabrication of the missing parts and restored the existing parts. The story that unwinds over the next pages, is an account of how Barry (in his own words) restored the telescope. The most obvious place to begin was with the nameplate which bore the Inscription, “John Browning – London”. These three words changed my life and still today I keep in very close contact with dozens of people I call friends, which all stemmed from this telescope.
Before recounting the story I need to thank several of the very key people who played direct and indirect roles and who were more than helpful and often inspirational. Alex Evans for his kindness in giving me the ‘old bits’ in the first place. Barry Armstead, a more than capable handyman and very close and personal friend. Robert Garfinkle U.S.A. and Dr. Ron Maddison U.S.A., past president of the Antique Telescope Society both these gentlemen own John Browning telescopes and gave me advice on researching and I am indebted to them. Jerry Grover FRAS of England who spent almost two years communicating with me and acting as a collaborator by visiting museums and libraries on my behalf in and around London. Plus literally hundreds of other people around the world who are members of societies, Libraries and various other establishments who are all in one way or other dedicated to preserving culture and history.
Little did I realise back then that I would be accepted as a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) in London, as well as be given the honour of Telescope Historian for my own astronomy society, the Western Sydney Amateur Astronomy Group (WSAAG), but more importantly than that, little did I realise how a few simple parts of a telescope could galvanise people of different ages, cultures and social status into a veritable army who all marched boldly together until the task was finished.
It turns out that the telescope was made by a celebrated telescope manufacturer in 1878 (John Browning) of London and the primary mirror was made and engraved by the renown mirror maker Henry With, therefore this 130 year old Browning-With telescope was about to be restored. Two years of intense research with tens of thousands of e-mail correspondence daily back and forth across the globe, a dedicated website (this one) as a tribute to the telescope and the off shoots that it lead to such as the never before seen journals of Charles Grover, assistant to John Browning as well as an ambitious and ongoing attempt to catalogue all known existing Browning telescopes.
Without doubt the two years effort I put into this project was noteworthy and I thank my wife Sharon and children for putting up with me during this obsessive phase of my life, however the telescope would simply not have come ‘back-to-life’ without the extraordinary and unselfish contribution of Barry Armstead, I am indebted to him and will continue to call him friend always. Here now in Barry’s own words is an account of how he tackled the restoration, there are also several hundred supportive photographs. Please enjoy...
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