ATM An Afternoon with Tom Cave

[Richard Schwartz <richas@idt.net>]

I have just come back from an afternoon with Tom Cave.  I delivered a
fou cult tester, and we used it to check a couple of mirrors.   He
seemed to confirm my judgement.   One mirror was an 8" with a nasty TDE
and crater Tycho dead center with peaks at about the 50% zone.  The
second was a 12.5" f/2.1 with a central hold; it had a superb edge and
as perfect a spherical figure as I could see in daylight conditions.  We
became frustrated with the pinhole and slitless method in daylight, and
went to a Ronchi grating (all easily substituted on my tester).

Tom reported that the Los Angeles Astronomical Society workshop (in
Monterey Park) is not going well.  Beginners are not getting help with
their mirrors.  LAAS needs help with their shop: it is so cluttered with
JUNK that there is no space for beginners to grind.  Tom estimates the
wash tub grinding stand to be vintage 1923.  Though I dropped out of
LAAS because some very nasty folks are on their board, I will stop by
there Wednesday night to see if I can help the beginners.  Tom said that
he hopes to be there once or twice a month.

The war stories flowed like oxygen from a pierced Mir module!  One story
is that Tom's father was once the second best marksman in the country;
he served as a sergeant in WW I, and was highly decorated.  He was later
a buddy of John McCone (director of C. I. A.).   Mc Cone was then head
of Cal Ship, a shipyard in the Long Beach area, and Tom's father was a
bank vice president.

Tom's first job was with Herrin optical for forty cents per hour.  In
those days, common laborors got $2.50, but there were more people
wanting jobs in optics than there were jobs.  Adam Smith's  invisible
hand did its work  (also known by Karl Marx as the "army of industrial
reserve").

Tom once delivered some filters to Hollywood because he was the only
person at Herrin optical with the needed gasoline ration card.  While
there, he watched some actors at work on stage, and on several occasions
had lunch with Humphry Bogart.

Tom's optical career was interrupted by Adolf Hitler, who Tom whipped
all by himself.  He was active in the liberation of Paris, and the final
invasion of the Rheinland; one month later, Hitler committed his last
(and only) rational act.

There is much to report, but no space here.  Tom is preparing to produce
some 6" to 12" mirrors.  I tried to interest him in larger mirrors, as a
Cave 16" or 20" would be a highly prized item.

Tom spoke of refractors.  He does not have a high opinion of the
Astrophysics refractors because the fluorite elements will deteriorate
with moisture.  A fine old Clark refractor, on the other hand, will last
hundreds of years.

Tom's garage is full of machines.  One is a four-spindle Strasbaugh that
was once in the optical shop at Northrop, Anaheim.  My desk was then
right outside that shop, and I was forbidden entry and my boss told me
not to converse with anybody who worked in there.  The four-banger has
220 volt three phase motors.  Tom powers them from 220 volt single phase
utility power through a motor-generator.  Tom also has a single spindle
Strasbaugh with electronic speed control; it can turn the spindle as
slow as 1/2 RPM, and handle optics up to 18" diameter.

I arrived at Northrop just after the retirement of Art DeVaney.  We
talked a lot about Art and how he was ill-treated by Northrop management
because he refused to deliver a product until it was absolutely right. 
What Northrop management did not know was that I had known Art several
years earlier when he used to re-figure aero-reconnaissance lenses for
astrophotography in the same shop now occupied by Los Angeles
Astronomical Society!

I reminde Tom of the first time I met him about three years ago, and my
confession.  Back in the early seventies, I was very poor.  I made a 3"
mirror out of a glass furniture castor cup, and (as a mockery of Tom's
"Astrola" trademark) called it a "Castrola".   The quality of that
mirror was pretty good, and when I first put it on Saturn, I became
hooked for life...."Hey, Dad, come and look at THIS!!!".  Tom said that
since the mirror was of good quality, he was not at all offended by my
mockery of his trademark.  What Tom does not know is that I have several
of those still around in a semi-finished state.

There is much to learn from this old guy.