Re: ATM Ritchey-Chretien

["Thomas R. Williams" <trw@ruf.rice.edu>]

Steven Lee:  I think you mean James Gregory, who lived in seventeenth
century England. If John Gregory is lurking somewhere on the web,  he
probably found that attribution amusing, but as far as I know he is still
living in Dripping Springs, Texas. John Gregory's design that you may be
thinking about is the Gregory-Maksutov.

On the origin of the Dall-Kirkham design, I don't have my resources at hand
at the moment, but I think Albert G. Ingalls is probably the source of this
name. Kirkham was an ATM, in Oregon if my memory serves me, and was an
active correspondent of Ingalls and a member, for a while, of Ingall's inner
circle of correspondents. Ingalls looked into the question of priority and
concluded that Dall, and Kirkham both deserved credit, and tagged the design
with the name that has stuck since that time. If anyone is interested, I can
probably give you the citation for the article on the subject in Scientific
American.

Tom Williams.
Thomas R. Williams
Rice University, History Department
email: trw@ruf.rice.edu
Phone: 713-526-2868
otherwise: 1750 Albans Road
Houston, TX 77005-1704