Henry Fitz

Henry Fitz
circa 1850
Born	(1808-12-31)31 December 1808 Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA
Died	7 November 1863(1863-11-07) (aged 54)
Resting place	New York City, USA
Citizenship	USA
Occupation	businessman
Known for	manufacturer of telescopes
Spouse(s)	Julia Ann Wells ​ (m. 1844)​

Henry Fitz was an American engineer, scientist, locksmith, optician, and inventor. As a teenager, one of his hobbies was astronomy, which led to him making telescopes. Fitz became a manufacturer of telescopes and the first American to make large high-end sophisticated refracting telescopes. He made telescopes for wealthy individuals, institutions, colleges, and universities throughout the United States, some of which are still in use. His larger telescopes are used to take pictures of planets and stars.

Early life[]

Fitz was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts on December 31, 1808. His mother, Susan (Page) Fitz, was of Scottish ancestry. His father, Henry Fitz Sr., was a hat maker.^[1] The family moved to Albany, New York, eleven years after his birth and to New York City some time after that. He learned as a boy from his parents to be frugal and health-conscious: saving money by walking instead of riding, never drinking alcoholic drinks, never smoking, and having small meals with little meat.^[2]

As a boy, Fitz was already very interested in science and mechanics. He initially learned the printing trade from his father. They printed The Gospel Herald, a religious weekly publication. With the initial mechanical ability he learned from printing machines, he took up the locksmith trade at the age of nineteen. He was tutored by William Day of New York City.^[3] He worked as a locksmith from 1830 to 1839 in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans.^[4]

One of the many hobbies Fitz enjoyed was astronomy. His first telescope was made using lenses from a pair of eyeglasses when he was fifteen years old. Fitz knew Alexander Wolcott, who was working on a mirror for a Cassegrain reflector telescope in the early 1830s. Fitz was able to obtain the half-finished speculum metal mirror blank that Wolcott had made. After hours of labor, he finished the mirror in 1837 and went on to make his first reflecting telescope in 1838.^[5][6]

Maria Mitchell in Vassar College Observatory June 1878 using a telescope made by Fitz^[7]

Henry Fitz 1850 shop advertisement

Midlife[]

Fitz traveled to Europe from August to November 1839 to study optics. He learned that the French were the best makers of high-quality glass. English and German opticians taught Fitz how to saw and grind glass for telescopes. After his journey to Europe, he returned to America and partnered with Wolcott to invent a Daguerrotype camera that had a shorter exposure time than cameras of the time. In 1841, he opened a lucrative photography studio business in Baltimore. The profits he made from the business allowed him to do further experiments in optics and chemistry. He made a high-quality achromatic lens in January 1845. He developed his skills into becoming a respected optical craftsman and later founded an optical company.^[4]

Fitz pioneered techniques for correcting poor-quality glass and grinding for making lenses for telescopes.^[4] He became one of the first telescope makers of importance and the first in America to make sizable high-end sophisticated refracting telescopes.^[8] Fitz set the record for making the most massive refractor telescopes in America on five different occasions.^[9] He played a meaningful role in the development of astronomical photography and the breakthrough of the first telescope specifically designed for photography. His mechanical ability made him a self-taught optician. He made a sixteen-inch dialytic telescope with a singlet objective and a doublet corrector in the middle of the tube. He made his flint glass elements to 1⁄20 inch (1.3 mm) to minimize imperfections in glass and reduce light scattering.^[5]

Fitz received commissions to build telescopes as his reputation grew. As time went on, orders came in for larger and more elaborate telescopes from wealthy individuals, observatory institutions, and leading universities. He made close to 40% of all the telescopes sold in the United States from 1840 to 1855.^[10] He also manufactured 80% of all astronomical telescopes made in the nation during this time. American-made telescopes were significantly less expensive than comparable instruments from Europe. Manufacturing locally in the United States instead of Europe was an important factor in the development of observatory facilities in America in the 19th century.^[5] Among the larger telescopes he made were two 13-inch instruments, one for Allegheny Observatory and the other for Dudley Observatory.^[11] He apprenticed several future telescope makers, such as John Byrne.^[10]

Making telescopes and related astronomical components was a labor of love for Fitz. Often he would be found working late into the night and sometimes until one or two in the morning. He was the best known American maker of telescopes and achromatic instruments before the Civil War.^[12] Fitz invented zone-polishing to overcome inhomogeneities and built foot power machines for the grinding of lenses. He trained employees to do most of the tasks involved in making lenses and mirrors. The critical final mirror polishing Fitz did himself to keep that part secret. He made a six-inch (152 mm) refractor telescope in 1845 for the American Institute Fair, for which he received a gold medal.^[4]

The South Carolina College at Columbia bought a 6.375-inch (161.9 mm) telescope from Fitz for $1,200 (equivalent to $37,000 in 2020) in 1851.^[5] The telescope was used by the college for the next decade. After the Civil War, it was stolen for scrap brass. The Haverford College in Pennsylvania purchased an eight-inch (203 mm) refractor telescope from Fitz in 1852.^[5] In 1856, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point purchased from Fitz a 9.75-inch (248 mm) refractor telescope that cost $5,000 (equivalent to $144,000 in 2020).^[5] Fitz also made telescopes for several private observatories and institutions, including Vassar College and the University of Michigan.^[4][13] There is only one known telescope that is signed by him, and the inscription reads, "Made by Fitz, New York, For The Erskine College, Due West Corner, South Carolina." He originally constructed the telescope in 1849, and it is thought to be the oldest existing Fitz telescope.^[14] He personally made a total of some 500 telescopes,^[15] and only about 50 have survived into the twenty-first century.^[16] Rogers Observatory at Alfred University, established by professor William A. Rogers in the 1860s, purchased a 9-inch refracting telescope made by Fitz in 1863. The single dome that housed the telescope was replaced in 1966 by two domes, one for Fitz's century-old telescope and the other for a new 16-inch reflector telescope.^[17][18]

Later life and death[]

Fitz’s telescope business was highly profitable, so in 1863, he started construction of a new house. However, he died suddenly on November 7, 1863.^[19] Some have reported that he was killed when a large chandelier fell from the ceiling of his new home.^[5] Obituaries report, however, that his demise was from tuberculosis.^[20] Before his final illness, he was about to sail for Europe to select a glass for a 24-inch (610 mm) telescope and to procure patents for a camera involving a new form of lens.^[21] The telescope would have been the largest in the world at the time if Fitz had completed it.^[4]

Personal life[]

Henry Fitz's workshop reconstructed at Smithsonian Institution at their Museum of American History

Fitz married Julia Ann Wells of Southold, Long Island in June 1844. He had known her for about ten years and they wrote letters to each other during this time. She read books as a hobby and had artistic skills. A year after they were married, they moved to New York City, where they spent the rest of their lives.^[22] Harry was their first son, born in 1847. He had a contract with his father for helping make telescopes in exchange for room and board. When Fitz died unexpectedly in 1863, Harry took over the business at the age of sixteen.^[23]

Fitz's second son, Benjamin, became a well-known painter. He died in 1890 in his 40s. Robert, his next son, had a nationwide reputation as a skilled mechanic. Charles, the fourth son, was a noteworthy businessman and an involved civic leader in Suffolk County, New York. George, the next son in the family line, was a professor at Harvard and later became a physician. Fitz's only daughter, Louise, married Silas Overton of Peconic, New York. All of Fitz's children married; by 1960, there were about fifty of his descendants living in the United States.^[24]

Fitz was one of the founders of the American Photographical Society, which in time became the Photographic Section of the American Institute. From 1845, however, cameras became a secondary hobby interest for Fitz, and he made them only between the telescope orders that he had at his business. Fitz's reconstructed workshop is now in storage at the United States National Museum of American History.^[25] It contains some of Fitz's original tools and machines that were donated by Louise Fitz Howell, Fitz's granddaughter.^[6][13]

References[]

Sources[]

• English, Neil (2012). Classic Telescopes. Springer. ISBN 9781461444244.

• Lankford, John (1997). History of Astronomy. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-8153-0322-X.

• Smithsonian Institution (1877). Bulletin. United States Printing Office. OCLC 761267914.

• Smithsonian Institution (2019). Smithsonian American Women. United States Printing Office. ISBN 9781588346650.

• United States National Museum (1962). Development of the Electrical Technology in Nineteenth Century. Smithsonian Institution. OCLC 988840144.