Maison Bardou, a firm established in Paris in 1818, was for many years a leading manufacturer of small telescopes for education and recreation,. It displayed its wares at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876.
This refracting telescope has a brass tube assembly, an objective lens of 3½ inch aperture and 52 inch focus, and a wooden tripod. The "A. BARDOU PARIS" inscription indicates that it was made between 1878 and 1895. James W. Queen & Co., the leading purveyor of scientific instruments in the United States, offered similar instruments for $175.
Everett Harrington Hurlburt, later to become a professional astronomer and physicist, received this from his father in the early 1920s. He continued to use it throughout his life, particularly for viewing solar eclipses.
Ref: James W. Queen & Co., Astronomical Telescopes (Philadelphia, 1889).
The Telescopes of Bardou & Son (New York, 1911).
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