Background

Clark was born on July 10, 1832, in Fall River, Massachusetts, the son of Alvan and Maria Pease.

Education

Nothing is known of Clark's education.

Career

Clark was the son of Alvin Clark, the founder of Alvan Clark & Sons. He joined his father and brother in the business in the early 1850's. Recognition of the family’s superb lenses was slow to come. The discovery of two double stars by the elder Alvan Clark in the late 1850's, however, attracted attention abroad, and the firm began to flourish.

They made the 36-inch (91-centimetre) lens for the Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, California (1888); the 30-inch lens for the Pulkovo Observatory, near St. Petersburg in Russia (1878); the 28-inch for the University of Virginia, Charlottesville (1883); and 24-inch lenses for the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C. (1873), and the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona (1896). All these telescopes remain in operation except that at Pulkovo, which was destroyed during World War II.

Clark directed the fabrication of the 40-inch lens of the Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, Wisconsin, the largest refractor lens in the world. Using telescopes of his own construction, he discovered the companion of the star Sirius as well as 16 double stars.

Achievements

• Clark was considered one of the most famous manufacturers of telescopes. He is most noted for his discovery of Sirius B and the refracting telescope with which he discovered it.
  
  He was awarded a medal of honor by the Russian Government and a gold medal from the French Academy of Science for his contributions to science.

Connections

Clark married Mary Mitchell Willard Clark on January 2, 1865. Together, they had 4 children.

Father:

Alvan Clark

Mother:

Maria Pease

Brother:

George Clark

Daughter:

Elizabeth W. Clark Grogan

Daughter:

Caroline Amelia Clark Eastman

Daughter:

Mary Theodora Clark Hollander

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography Volume 3
  1971
• Alvan Clark and Sons Artists in Optics Excerpt from Alvan Clark and Sons Artists in Optics Clarks made the objectives for the largest refracting telescopes in the world; and the fifth of their efforts, their 40-inch lens at the Yerkes Observatory, has never been surpassed. Their optical work, which was recognized as unexcelled anywhere in the world, was the first significant American contribution to astronomical instrument making.
  1995
• Investigation of the Objective and Micrometers of the Twenty-Six Inch Equatorial Constructed by Alvan Clark & Sons