No way, Joe, the grit is part of the artifact. Plus who knows if it's been contaminated, or even what type of grit it is? Optical abrasives are easy to purchase these days, and probably of better quality than in Porter & Pierce's day. On Mon, Aug 25, 2014 at 8:07 PM, Joe Bauman via Utah-Astronomy < utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
It's amazing that the tin seems to be nearly full after all these decades. Congratulations on a nice fine. Will you use the grit?
On Monday, August 25, 2014 5:50 AM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
I thought some of the ATMs on the list would get a kick out of my latest historical "find".
http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/440921-classic-ashtrays/?p=6176776
It's at least 80 years old, with a direct connection to Russell W. Porter, and probably handled personally by his second-in-command at Stellafane at the time, John M. Pierce.
It's a safe bet that had not Porter and his friends started the telescope-making movement in America back then, the face of amateur astronomy today would be very, very different.