Henry Fitz

Fitz Henry (* 1808 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, † October 31, 1863 ) was an American telescope manufacturers.

From 1840 to 1855 he made 40 percent of all telescopes sold in the U.S. here. He received the decisive impulse on a trip to Europe. Here he was first introduced to the daguerreotype photography in touch and learned a lot about the production of lenses. Back in the U.S., he opened a photography studio. The resulting gain he could devote himself intensively to the development of better lenses. 1845 were his skills and achievements so great that he could now concentrate on the manufacture of telescopes. In 1845 he presented a 6- inch refractor, for the American Institute ago. His first Oberservationsinstrument he puts 1849 for the Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina, manufactures, for which he received $ 1,050.

Even the amateur astronomer Robert van Arsdale from Newark, New Jersey acquired by Fitz a comet seeker. Whether he thus discovered the comet led to his name, however, is not known. Maria Mitchell also used a device of Fitz.

In 1856 he put forth an instrument for the Academy at West Point, and a year later he created with a 12 ¼ - inch telescope, the largest ever made ​​in the United States and the third largest telescope in the world. This telescope cost $ 6,000.

His biggest telescope with a 16- inch lens for the William Vanduzee from Buffalo, New York, $ 7,000 paid, he put forth in 1861.