Heliostat
Brashear, John A. · around 1900
A heliostat throws sunlight where it might be used for photography or scientific observations. This example (half of a two-mirror instrument) has a silvered-glass octagonal mirror, clockwork mechanism, and tripod base with leveling screws. The “J. A. Brashear, Allegheny, Pa. 10” inscription refers to John A. Brashear, a sell-taught optician who, with financial backing from William Thaw, a local philanthropist, could quit his job in a steel mill and devote his energies to making telescopes and related scientific apparatus. In 1886, again with help from Thaw, Brashear established an instrument shop in Allegheny, then a suburb of Pittsburgh.
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