Boller and Chivens

Boller and Chivens
Industry	Astronomical telescopes, cameras and other precision instruments
Founded	c. 1946
Founder	Harry B. Boller and ; Clyde C. Chivens
Headquarters	South Pasadena, California, United States
Website	bollerandchivens.com (archival site)

The Baker-Nunn satellite tracking camera.

The Ruth Crisp Telescope at the Carter Observatory in Wellington, New Zealand, a 41-cm (16-inch) Cassegrain reflector built by Boller and Chivens.

Boller and Chivens was an American manufacturer of high-quality telescopes and spectrographs headquartered in South Pasadena, California.

History

Founded about 1946 by Harry Berthold Boller (1915-1997) and Clyde Cuthbertson Chivens (1915-2008).^[1] the company was acquired in 1965 by Perkin-Elmer.^[2]

In the 1950s, Boller and Chivens collaborated with Perkin-Elmer to develop and manufacture the large-aperture Baker-Nunn satellite tracking camera for the United States Vanguard space satellite program.^[3]

In culture

A 41-cm (16-inch) Boller and Chivens Cassegrain reflector originally housed at the Harvard-Smithsonian Oak Ridge Observatory in Massachusetts is available for public use at the National Air and Space Museum's Public Observatory Project on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.^[4]

Notes and references

^ Approximate year of founding is given by Peter Abrahams in a blog posting reproduced at [1] Archived 2021-11-27 at the Wayback Machine. Harry Boller and Clyde Chivens were engineers with degrees from California Institute of Technology. See Oral History Transcript - Dr. Ira Bowen, August 26, 1969, at [2] Archived 2015-02-14 at the Wayback Machine. (Chivens was in the Class of 1935. See Clyde Chivens obituary, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Ca, March 4, 2008. See also California Institute of Technology, Engineering and Science, "News of Classes," Volume 1:4, March 1938, at [3]. Chivens worked in the Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II. See Folder 2.9 containing OSRD report by Chivens in Guide to the Joseph Foladare Papers, 1943-1946 at [4].) Harry Boller and Clyde Chivens were also associated in a firm called High Vacuum Electronics (later called Kilovac, now part of Tyco Electronics), incorporated in California in 1964. See articles of incorporation at [5] Archived 2012-05-03 at the Wayback Machine. A photo of Chivens (left), Boller (center) and Baker-Nunn camera co-developer Joseph Nunn (right) may be viewed at "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-06-17. Retrieved 2009-12-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link). Birth and death dates from Social Security Death Index.
^ ""Perkin-Elmer Buys California Corporation," Hartford Courant, Hartford, CT, March 4, 1965, p. 38". Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved July 5, 2017.
^ NASA, Vanguard: A History, Chapter 9, "The Tracking Systems" (see note 17).
^ NASM AirSpace Blog, March 29, 2009. Archived July 31, 2009, at the Wayback Machine and NASM Public Observatory Project Archived 2010-02-22 at the Wayback Machine

External links

www.bollerandchivens.com: a site by former employee Don Winans documenting the products made by Boller and Chivens. (Accessed 23 January 2012.)
Blog posting asking help identifying details of Boller and Chivens image collection, March 12, 2009. Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
Boller and Chivens image directory

[1] Approximate year of founding is given by Peter Abrahams in a blog posting reproduced at [1] Archived 2021-11-27 at the Wayback Machine. Harry Boller and Clyde Chivens were engineers with degrees from California Institute of Technology. See Oral History Transcript - Dr. Ira Bowen, August 26, 1969, at [2] Archived 2015-02-14 at the Wayback Machine. (Chivens was in the Class of 1935. See Clyde Chivens obituary, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Ca, March 4, 2008. See also California Institute of Technology, Engineering and Science, "News of Classes," Volume 1:4, March 1938, at [3]. Chivens worked in the Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II. See Folder 2.9 containing OSRD report by Chivens in Guide to the Joseph Foladare Papers, 1943-1946 at [4].) Harry Boller and Clyde Chivens were also associated in a firm called High Vacuum Electronics (later called Kilovac, now part of Tyco Electronics), incorporated in California in 1964. See articles of incorporation at [5] Archived 2012-05-03 at the Wayback Machine. A photo of Chivens (left), Boller (center) and Baker-Nunn camera co-developer Joseph Nunn (right) may be viewed at "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-06-17. Retrieved 2009-12-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link). Birth and death dates from Social Security Death Index.

[2] ""Perkin-Elmer Buys California Corporation," Hartford Courant, Hartford, CT, March 4, 1965, p. 38". Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved July 5, 2017.

[3] NASA, Vanguard: A History, Chapter 9, "The Tracking Systems" (see note 17).

[4] NASM AirSpace Blog, March 29, 2009. Archived July 31, 2009, at the Wayback Machine and NASM Public Observatory Project Archived 2010-02-22 at the Wayback Machine

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