Background
Henry Fitz was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the son of Henry and Susan Bradley (Page) Fitz. His grandfather, Mark Fitz, was town clerk and a person of consequence in Newburyport.
Henry Fitz was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the son of Henry and Susan Bradley (Page) Fitz. His grandfather, Mark Fitz, was town clerk and a person of consequence in Newburyport.
Henry’s first occupation was that of printer, but, thinking that printing did not offer scope enough for his inventive faculty, he became a locksmith. At that time the locksmith was a more important man than he has ever been since, and Fitz, whose skill enabled him to do two days’ work in one, prospered in his new trade and devoted his surplus energy to experiments with optical glass.
About 1835 he constructed his first reflecting telescope. During the winter of 1844 he devised a method of perfecting object-glasses for refracting telescopes. The next autumn, at the Fair of the American Institute, his exhibit of an instrument with a six-inch aperture attracted favorable attention and won him the patronage of several astronomers.
In time he was a little prior to Alvan Clark, and had he lived longer he would probably have carried his art as far and become as well-known.
His methods were of his own invention and were refined to a point where he could detect the expansion of an object-glass effected by passing a finger over its surface on a frosty night (New York Tribune, post).
His instruments were highly prized. He made a large number of six-inch telescopes, including one that Lieut. James M. Gilliss took with him on the United States Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere and that found a permanent home in the Chilean government’s observatory.
With another six-inch Robert Van Arsdale of Newark, New Jersey, was able to discover several comets. Fitz made various eight- and nine-inch telescopes, among them a nine-inch that belonged to the British charge d affaires at Montevideo. He made one instrument of ten inches for a Mr. Vickers of Baltimore, two of twelve inches for the University of Michigan and for Vassar College, two of thirteen inches for the Dudley Observatory at Albany, New York, and for a group of men in Allegheny, Pa. , and at least one of sixteen inches, which was owned by a Mr. Van Duzee of Buffalo. For Lewis Morris Rutherfurd he made five telescopes—of four, five and three quarters, six, nine, and eleven and one quarter inches, the last an instrument of remarkable defining power.
His ambition in his later years was to build a twenty- four inch telescope. He was about to sail for Europe to select the glass when death overtook him.
He made one instrument of ten inches for a Mr. Vickers of Baltimore, two of twelve inches for the University of Michigan and for Vassar College, two of thirteen inches for the Dudley Observatory at Albany, N. Y. , and for a group of men in Allegheny, Pa. , and at least one of sixteen inches, which was owned by a Mr. Van Duzee of Buffalo.