Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - 68
History Paid Forward
The
Tale of the
Al Paslow
Brashear Time Capsule
A collapsed building spits out pieces of America's telescope history.
During the night of last March 16th, the north wall of an
abandoned 19th-century factory in Pittsburgh suddenly
collapsed, spilling brick and mortar into an adjoining
apartment complex. The next morning local officials
ruled the remainder of the building unsafe and ordered
an emergency demolition.
I was working in rural West Virginia when news of
the collapse appeared in the local media. To most, the
four-story building was just a derelict hulk. But in its
prime, I knew, it had been the John A. Brashear Factory, the source of many of America's finest and largest
telescopes a century and more ago. The name, at least,
remained locally famous. One of Pittsburgh's high
schools is named for John Brashear, and I have fond
memories of grinding mirrors and machining telescope
68
Januar y 2016 sky & telescope
mountings at the Brashear Association workshop during
my youth. Saddened by the news, I returned home to
Pittsburgh with plans to visit the site that weekend.
John Brashear was a self-educated astronomer and
precision-instrument maker who manufactured stateof-the-art telescopes, optics, and scientific apparatus in
the factory he built just behind his home. The structure,
once visited by scientists and educators from around
the world, had fallen into disrepair during 20 years of
abandonment. The City of Pittsburgh acquired it in 2012
for nonpayment of taxes and registered it as a National
Historic Building, but didn't maintain it.
I arrived on the site that Sunday morning, guided by
a massive excavator deafening the neighborhood as it
dumped tons of debris into a container truck. I cau-
Sky and Telescope - January 2016
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - January 2016
Contents
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - Cover1
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - Cover2
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - 1
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - Contents
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - 3
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - 4
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - 5
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - A
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - B
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - 6
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - 7
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Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - Cover3
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - Cover4
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - S0
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - S1
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - S2
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - S3
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - S4
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - S5
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - S6
Sky and Telescope - January 2016 - S7
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