Need Grubb Lens Expertise

[Willeica]

I was about to raise the matter of when is an Irishman a real Irishman in the 19th century, but you have answered the question for me - as regards Grubb and Parsons!
Britain has no monopoly on Jingoism and Zenophobia in the 20th century. I was reading the account of a Danish group's exploration and settlement attempts in Mongolia during the 1920’s a few years ago and came across the most awful sections characterizing the “natives” and their “abilities”.

William Parsons was born in York and died in Dublin. His wife Mary was also born in Yorkshire, in Bradford. Charles was born in London and died in Jamaica. He did a lot of his growing up in Birr. He is rightly regarded with pride here in Ireland for his achievements, particularly for the steam turbine. His Wikipedia entry describes him as an 'Irish engineer' and I would not argue with that. Both Grubbs were born and died in Ireland and lived here all of their lives apart from the sojourn by Howard in St Albans after WWII. Howard also had a holiday home in North Wales and I have seen the holiday photos which he and his family took there. The Grubbs are not as well known here, probably because, unlike the Parsons family, they did not leave behind a large site such as Birr Castle which still contains what was the world's largest telescope for most of the 19th Century. The Grubb Works in Rathmines no longer exists. I believe I read somewhere that it had contained a factory for waterproof wear for some years after the Grubbs left, but it has long since been demolished.

Speaking of chauvinism and jingoism there is no evidence that either the Grubbs or the Parsons families engaged in this, but Howard, at least, was proud of his knighthood and there is written evidence of this. In the 1850s, Thomas was subject to some not very nice comments from the other side of the Irish Sea, particularly from Thomas Sutton with his nasty 'Green Isle' comments, although I recently came across a piece in the RPS Journal where Sutton aka ' The Wrangler from Cambridge' apologised to Grubb for his earlier comments. One interesting point is that Thomas did not have 'Dublin' engraved on his Aplanatic lenses which were subject to his British patent, but he happily had 'Dublin' engraved on his non patent lenses e.g. the Petzval types

The history of the relationship between Ireland and Britain is littered with unfortunate and incorrect concepts of each other, some of which have lasted up to the present time. Racial and cultural stereotypes are never helpful, no matter what part of the world they come from and are best left to history. They have no place in the world of today.

William

[Jody_S]

Another one for the lists, and I finally found a lens worthy of mounting on my 8x10 studio camera:

No 3032, engraved Grubb, Dublin, a C2 Petzval (16.25in f5, for 8x10), with a slide-in Waterhouse stop mounted in the hood, just in front of the front element. It came with an f13 stop. Would this particular disposition serve to date the lens, or does someone now have the Grubb production records, as I noticed others were able to date their lenses exactly?

[pgk]

Another one for the lists, and I finally found a lens worthy of mounting on my 8x10 studio camera:

No 3032, engraved Grubb, Dublin, a C2 Petzval (16.25in f5, for 8x10), with a slide-in Waterhouse stop mounted in the hood, just in front of the front element. It came with an f13 stop. Would this particular disposition serve to date the lens, or does someone now have the Grubb production records, as I noticed others were able to date their lenses exactly?

I can contact the person who owns a Grubb factory ledger and see if I can find out exactly when it was completed at the factory. I would estimate ~1870 within a year or so though from the data I hold (2409 on 9th Oct 1865 and 3343 on 2nd April 1872). I have no records of another C2 Petzval having survived although a Scottish University has a C3 in its collection. Could you post a photo or two so that I can add it in to my researches please? To date I hold details of about 160 survivals from a production (father and son) of around 5000 lenses (I know more are held in museum repositories but getting details is like pulling teeth). Thomas Grubb claimed that his Petzval lenses were better than those from other makers though exactly why is not stated. They do produce nice images though!

[Jody_S]

Yes, I will post photos, I'm still unpacking from the show but I will set up the flashes perhaps later today. There were 4 other purchases that might interest forum members. I had a really good 2 weeks, 2 lenses that were very high on my list to buy plus the Grubb that was basically a 'unicorn', people have heard of one but never seen one.

[Jody_S]

I had a really good 2 weeks:



Back row, left to right:

Grubb C2, Bausch & Lomb 12" f4 Petzval with soft focus adjustment on rear group, unknown maker 60cm f4.5 telephoto design aerial lens (may cover 4x5 but probably not)

Front row:

Cooke knuckler Ser VI 13" f5.6, Darlot 10" f4 Petzval, Busch (?) projection Petzval 17" f6.5 approx., with an aperture professionally installed at some point

Photos of the Grubb C2: