lescopes. In
1850, when he had been fourteen years in business, he furnished his
earliest patron, Professor Phillips, with an equatorial telescope of 6
1/4 inches aperture. His second (of 6 1/8) was supplied two years
later, to James Wigglesworth of Wakefield. William Gray, Solicitor, of
York, one of his earliest friends, bought a 6 1/2-inch telescope in
1853. In the following year, Professor Pritchard of Oxford was supplied
with a 6 1/2-inch. The other important instruments were as follows: in
1854, Dr. Fisher, Liverpool, 6 inches; in 1855, H. L. Patterson,
Gateshead, 7 1/4 inches; in 1858, J. G. Barclay, Layton, Essex, 7 1/4
inches; in 1857, Isaac Fletcher, Cockermouth, 9 1/4 inches; in 1858,
Sir W. Keith Murray, Ochtertyre, Crieff, 9 inches; in 1859, Captain
Jacob, 9 inches; in 1860, James Nasmyth, Penshurst, 8 inches; in 1861,
another telescope to J. G. Barclay, 10 inches; in 1864, the Rev. W. R.
Dawes, Haddenham, Berks, 8 inches; and in 1867, Edward Crossley,
Bermerside, Halifax, 9 3/8 inches.

In 1855 Mr. Cooke obtained a silver medal at the first Paris Exhibition
for a six-inch equatorial telescope.[8] This was the highest prize
awarded. A few years later he was invited to Osborne by the late
Prince Albert, to discuss with his Royal Highness the particulars of an
equatorial mounting with a clock movement, for which he subsequently
received the order. On its completion he superintended the erection of
the telescope, and had the honour of directing it to several of the
celestial objects for the Queen and the Princess Alice, and answered
their many interesting questions as to the stars and planets within
sight.

Mr. Cooke was put to his mettle towards the close of his life. A
contest had long prevailed among telescope makers as to who should turn
out the largest refracting instrument. The two telescopes of fifteen
inches aperture, prepared by Merz and Mahler, of Munich, were the
largest then in existence. Their size was thought quite extraordinary.
But in 1846, Mr. Alvan Clark, of Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, U.S.,
spent his leisure hour's in constructing small telescopes.[9] He was
not an optician, nor a mathematician, but a portrait painter. He
possessed, however, enough knowledge of optics and of mechanics, to
enable him to make and judge a telescope. He spent some ten years in
grinding lenses, and was at length enabled to produce objectives equal
in quality to any ever made.

In 1853, the Rev. W