Thomas Grubb

Thomas Grubb (4 August 1800 – 16 September 1878) was an Irish optician and founder of the Grubb Telescope Company. He was born near Portlaw, County Waterford, Ireland, the son of William Grubb Junior, a prosperous Quaker farmer and his second wife, Eleanor Fayle. Thomas started out in 1830 in Dublin as a metal billiard-table manufacturer. He diversified into making telescopes and erected a public observatory near his factory at 1 Upper Charlemont Street, Portobello, Dublin. As makers of some of the largest and best-known telescopes of the Victorian era, the company was at the forefront of optical and mechanical engineering. His innovations for large telescopes included clock-driven polar mounts, whiffletree mirror mounting cells and Cassegrain reflector optics. Later, the manufacturing firm changed its name to Grubb-Parsons in 1925. Works Thomas Grubb's reputation as a competent telescope maker began to spread as he offered his talents to the Irish astronomical community. Grubb first met the director of Armagh Observatory, Romney Robinson, sometime in the 1830s. His first commission was for E.J. Cooper of Markree Observatory. He was tasked to mount a 13.3 inch lens which was used to view the solar eclipse of 15 May 1836.