The Founders: Russell W. Porter

Our esteemed Russell Porter was born in 1871, in Springfield, Vermont.

In 1889, he graduated through the Vermont Academy. That same year he attended Norwich University for one year, then transferred to the University of Vermont, studying civil engineering. In 1892 he became a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Polar Adventures

In 1892, he attended a lecture by famous polar explorer Robert Peary, on Greenland, which surely had sparked a sense of adventure in him, for he signed up to voyage on a ship, as both an artist and surveyor, as part of Frederick Cook's journey to the aforementioned Country. The Voyage wasn't without its mishaps, as the ship collided with an iceberg, and fortunate enough to be rescued and returned to Boston via fishing schooner. Even with what must have been quite a traumatic experience, he did not let it deter him as he continued travelling the Arctic; Baffin Island in 1897, Yukon Gold Rush in 1898, Labrador in 1899, with a trip to Northern Greenland in 1900. He was even in charge of astronomical observations on the Ziegler Polar expeditions of 1901 and 1903. In a rather dramatic fashion, misfortune came again, as the second of those expeditions suffered another terrible mishap, stranding the entire crew in the Arctic for 2 years, when their ship was crushed by ice and sank in Teplitz Bay, off Rudolph Island, in the Russian Arctic.

Porter must have had adventurous blood in him, as traumatic events such as these would likely deter just about anyone. But not Porter, for in 1906, he joined Frederick Cook again, this time on a journey to Alaska's Mt. Mckinley (Which has since been renamed Denali). The story goes that while Porter's party surveyed a 3000 square mile region surrounding the mountain, and stopping to paint a watercolor of the scenery, Cook's group broke off to climb the mountain, upon their rendezvous, Porter was said to be rather skeptical of Cook's claims of having climbed it at all.

Port Clyde, Maine

Soon after settling down in Port Clyde, Maine, he met postal clerk Alice Belle Marshall, whom he married in 1907, in her father's house. In 1912, their daughter Caroline would be born. It is also around this time that due to a combination of events, his interest in astronomy seemed to take hold of him.

The Wayward Telescope Builder

In around, 1911, a good friend of his, James Hartness, was an amateur astronomer and telescope builder himself. Upon hearing of Porter's enthusiasm for the subject, he'd sent him telescope building ideas, and a bundle of Popular Astronomy magazines. An article that caught his eye was one about 'Speculum Making', the mirror at the heart of a reflecting telescope.  (Bert Willard, Russell W. Porter, p.108). He would be so captivated that he wanted to know more, and contacted the author about how he could make his own speculum, the hobby apparently having been widespread in England at the time. From there, he started in earnest by sending for the necessary materials for making his first paraboloid. 

As per Oscar Scott Marshall, in speaking of the same article, the telescope building itch began to manifest itself when Porter chanced upon an article in Popular Astronomy written by a coffee merchant, about working glass using heat and abrasion. He was so touched emotionally, and one can just imagine the sparkle in his eyes. "If such a fellow can do it, so can I!, he could be heard uttering as a favourite expression of his. "Your wits and your two hands will do it!" (O.S Marshall, Popular Astronomy, Vol 57, p.237)

We don't know for sure what size his first mirror ended up being. In his book about Russell W. Porter, Bert Willard states, "There is some dispute and no proof as to the size of the first mirror he made, conjecture ranging from a two-inch to a ten-inch diameter disc." But we do know that by the time Porter and his family moved back to Springfield, Vermont, (around 1919?) he'd already completed a dozen mirrors, the largest of which was 16-Inches in diameter. Though most of them hadn't at this time ended up in any telescopes. In 1911, however, when he aquired a 6-Inch refracting telescope, he built himself a small observatory next to his home. Bert Willard states in his book, "Because Porter never wrote how he happened to receive the instrument, one that was far too expensive for most amateurs, we might speculate that it came from his well-to-do friend James Hartness."

Boston, MIT, and Washington

In 1915, the Porter family moved to Boston so that Porter could teach architecture at MIT as an Instructor in Design. Some time later, at the request of James Hartness, they moved to Washington, D.C. so Porter could work at the National Bureau of Standards, contributing to the production of badly needed prisms and flat optical components.

Back to Springfield & The First Class

In 1919, Porter and family move back to his hometown of Springfield. He would get a job at the Jones & Lamson Machine Company, where his friend James Hartness was President of the company, where he would help his friend develop the Optical Comparitor, an instrument used to accurately check pitch, form and lead of screw threads. And in another lasting legacy he left behind, the Jones & Lamson Company is still active today making comparitors.

While in Port Clyde, he'd already hosted a meeting (Society for Practical Astronomy) of like-minded amateurs at his home, but it was in 1920 that it really took off. On August, 17 1920, with the help of James Hartness, he was able to gather a group of 16 people, and they'd gather at the James & Lamson Machine Shop, and already then, there was a notion in Porter's mind that it could resolve into something more permanent. This was the first class, and it would change everything, as it was the very basis for the Springfield Telescope Makers. To read more about the fateful first class, click here.

Creation of the Springfield Telescope Makers & Stellafane

The telescope making classes having become popular enough had Porter realizing that maybe he had something with his group of telescope makers, and in 1923, a club was officially formed. The Springfield Telescope Makers, or the name we know them by now (as there were likely other variations on the name), had their first official meeting on December 7, 1923. Shortly, they had built a clubhouse on a 3-acre plot of land belonging to Porter on top of Breezy Hill, outside of town.

In 1926, the Springfield Telescope Makers invited other groups of stargazers to their clubhouse to compare telescopes and exchange ideas, and from this we would get the Annual Stellafane Convention, named after their clubhouse.

While the telescope making movement was gaining momentum, back in 1925, Albert G. Ingalls, editor of Scientific American at the time, had featured Porter and the STMs in articles, generating more interest, in what would eventually become the telescope making bibles, 'Amateur Telescope Making Vols 1-3'.

California & Palomar

In the late 1920's, George Ellery Hale had taken an interest in Porter, as such that Porter, unbeknown to him at the time of a meeting of a visit with Hale's men in Springfield, was being recruited for a job that would be another landmark legacy. It was only on a train ride with two of the California scientists that the truth of the matter was revealed to him, that of a possibility of joining the staff being organized to build a 200-Inch Telescope. No longer an amateur, he would be joining the ranks of professionals. In 1928, he finally heard from the astronomers, as he received a telegram from Hale himself dated November 21st. It read:

"Can you come to Pasadena for several months to assist in designing two hundred inch telescope and instrument shop auxiliary instruments. Please wire collect monthly salary desired and wether you can come at once as we wish to push work rapidly".

After an exchange of messages, and the salary worked out, he was due to arrive in Pasadena on December 1st, but not without feeling pangs of regret of having to leave his Stellafane friends behind. As such, it was Vice-President Pierce who assumed duties of the club while Porter was gone. Once he'd arrived, Hale soon put him to work, the first of which was to help determine the final site of the 200-Inch Telescope. During his time there, he'd go on to produce his extremely detailed cutaway drawings noted for their precision and beauty, and which were vital to the success of the large telescope, which itself was completed in 1948.

His Passing and Legacy

His close friend Oscar Marshall, who should be noted as being the second STM member Hale had hired, had dropped by at his home in Springfield, witnessing Porter working in his basement, on February 22, 1949, and it would be the last time they'd see each other. Porter was planning on working on several other of his projects and receiving a few visitors, but in the middle of the afternoon was stricken by a heart-attack. A second one at eleven-thirty that evening, and at 77-years old, he was gone. He'd left behind a number of enduring legacies; the club and convention, those of which would be nearly 100 years at the time of this writing.

His wife Alice would personally carry his ashes across the country to the family plot in Port Clyde.

As Bert Willard states in his book, the best words to describe him were perhaps the ones written by Porter himself, originally written to a friend:
"Nothing gives me more satisfaction than realizing that I have helped towards giving thousands of people the pleasure of creating with their own hands a tool to unlock the wonders of the heavens."

If there ever had been any doubt as to the impact Porter had had in Astronomy and Telescope Making, in 1977, Stellafane (the clubhouse) had been placed on the National Register of Historic Sites, with a certificate proudly displayed at the 1978 convention, and after a dozen of years later and some hard work, in 1989, Stellafane was designated a National Historic Landmark.

If that hadn't been enough, Craters both on the Moon and Mars have been named in his honor. In 1970, after some effort in getting Moon Crater Clavius B renamed in his honor, which had been proposed years earlier but never formally accepted by the International Astronomical Union, the STMs now had a letter from none other than Sir Patrick Moore, stating that at his urging, the oversight had been corrected. The letter read:

In 1972, the IAU would also name a Mars crater after him in the Aonia Terra region, an area noted for the Lowell Crater. (See it here on Wikipedia)

Mirror and Club Activities

In 1929, while John Pierce was president, Russell Porter was named Honorary President of the Springfield Telescope Makers.
Although, as noted above, we may never know the size of Porter's first mirror, but by the time he moved back to Springfield in 1919, he made at least a dozen, including a 16-Inch.

Russell W. Porter: Port Clyde, ME

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