Grubb Dublin & Grubb Parsons: Telescope Makers
Ian S. Glass
Grubb Dublin & Grubb Parsons: Telescope Makers, the latest book by Dr Ian S. Glass, examines the history of one of the most important firms in the development of modern astronomical instrumentation. Focusing on Thomas Grubb, Howard Grubb, and the later evolution of Grubb Parsons, it situates their work at the intersection of scientific practice, precision engineering, industrial enterprise, and institutional astronomy. Through the history of telescope design, manufacture, and deployment, the book shows how technical innovation, commercial constraint, and observational ambition combined to shape modern astronomy, offering both a detailed account of a specialised instrument-making tradition and a broader contribution to the history of science and technology.
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Author information: Ian Glass was born in Ireland and educated at Trinity College Dublin and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has lived in Cape Town since 1971 and has worked for most of his career at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), specialising in the infrared. He is the author of several other books: Victorian Telescope Makers: The lives and letters of Thomas and Howard Grubb (1997), Handbook of Infrared Astronomy (1999), Revolutionaries of the Cosmos – the Astro-Physicists (2006), Proxima, the Nearest Star Other than the Sun (2008), Nicolas-Louis de La Caille, Astronomer and Geodesist (2013), and The Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope: History and heritage (2nd edition, 2018).
Copyright notice: Original title: Victorian Telescope Makers: The Lives and Letters of Thomas and Howard Grubb, copyright © IOP Publishing Ltd 1997. Copyright ceded to I.S. Glass 2008. Original ISBN 0 7503 0454 5
Copyright © This edition by I.S. Glass 2026
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the author, or as expressly permitted by law. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the author at glass.ian@gmail.com
Distributed with the author’s permission, for personal use only, via the Centre for Astronomical Heritage (CfAH). www.cfah.org.za/grubb-glass/
