Pittsburgh's Original Buhl Planetarium:
Public Science Education Pioneer

For the Ohio State Meeting of the
Great Lakes Planetarium Association

Saturday, October 13, 2001, 1:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Saving Time
North Hills High School Planetarium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Buhl Planetarium building

Zeiss II Planetarium Projector --

Small image during sky show

Large image during sky show

Image after sky show

Image in elevator pit, with Westinghouse "worm-gear" elevator

Planetarium Console(1982) -- Lecturer shown is Francis G. Graham, Founder of American Lunar Society

10-inch Siderostat-type Refractor Telescope in 1941

Photograph of Buhl Volunteer at console of Siderostat-type telescope(published on front page of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on July 27, 1987)

Building Exterior --

"Primitive Science" and "Modern Science" copper-clad sculptures over Buhl entrance

"The Heavens" sculpture on front of building

"The Earth" sculture on front of building, with Carnegie Library clocktower behind

"Day" sculture over east entrance(Hall of the Universe)

"NIght" sculpture over west entrance(Lecture Hall--"Little Science Theater")

Inscription on east wall

Inscription on west wall

Names of famous scientists, such as Ptolemy and Hipparchus, inscribed below dome

1950s view of building--before construction of Allegheny Center complex

1937 view of Diamond Square with Allegheny City Hall and Carnegie Library

Rear view of Allegheny City Hall, showing Boggs and Buhl Department Store and Carnegie Library clocktower

October, 1938 view of construction of Buhl Planetarium

Cross-section view of interior of Buhl Planetarium

Inspiration for Buhl Planetarium --

Exterior of Adler Planetarium, Chicago - 1933

Adler's first projector: Zeiss II on wheels

Leo J. Scanlon, sitting under Stevens painting of Saturn on Mezzanine level of Buhl Planetarium

Leo Scanlon demonstrates strength of world's first all-aluminum dome - 1930

Photograph of Zeiss II projector at Fels Planetarium, Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, during 1947 founding convention of the Astronomical League (Harlow Shapley, third man from left in front row)

Buhl Exhibits --

Dinosaur Hall, Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Rand McNally World Globe--transferred to Carnegie Science Center(not currently on display)

746-Pound Iron-Nickel Meteorite, fifth largest fragment from Barringer Meteor Crater near Winslow, Arizona--transferred to Carnegie Science Center

4-inch Brashear Refractor Telescope--transferred to Carnegie Science Center:

Telescope

Telescope close-up

Classic Astronomy "push-button" animated exhibits--Hall of the Universe:

Tycho Brahe's Mural Quadrant

First great observatory after invention of telescope: Johannes Hevelius

Weight comparisons of Sun and Earth

Foucault Pendulum:

At Buhl Planetarium

At Carnegie Science Center

Tesla Coil --

One million-volt Oudin-type Tesla Coil at Buhl Planetarium(now demonstrated at Carnegie Science Center)

Photograph of Nikola Tesla, worked in Pittsburgh, at Westinghouse Electric Company, for about a year

"Sparky" on Van de Graaff Electrostatic Generator

Lecture at large World Map

Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair(1956 photographs):

Science Fair judging

Grand Prize Winner

Tesla Coil project

Foucault Pendulum project--kept at Buhl Planetarium for public demonstrations

Miniature Railroad and Village:

Charles M. Bowdish - 1960s

Charles Bowdish working on railroad platform in 1956

Railroad display in Bowdish's home in Brookville, Pennsylvania - 1948

Lines of people waiting to see "The Great Christmastown Railroad" - 1956:

Outside of building

Line on Mezzanine

Line at entrance to exhibit in South Gallery(renamed Bowdish Gallery in 1983)

Line entering exhibit

Line of people walking around exhibit - 1966-1967 season

Three young visitors admiring farm scene on platform - 1961-1962 season

Visitors viewing night scene of exhibit in 1980s

Platform layout - 1982

John Brashear --

John Brashear portrait

John Brashear close-up

Brashear standing outside of his small South Side workshop

Brashear Association and Museum, South Side

New Allegheny Observatory building

Carnegie Steel beam, donated for erection of Allegheny Observatory

30-inch Thaw Refractor Telescope

30-inch Keeler Memorial Reflector Telescope

13-inch Fitz-Clark Refractor in new Allegheny Observatory

Original Allegheny Observatory building(razed in 1950s)

13-inch Fitz-Clark Refractor Telescope in original Allegheny Observatory

Samuel Pierpont Langley - first professional Observatory Director

Transit Telescope and Master Clock

James E. Keeler - second Observatory Director

11-inch Brashear Refractor Telescope --

On campus of Carnegie Technical Schools, so students could see Halley's Comet in 1910

At Nicholas E. Wagman Observatory, just north of Pittsburgh; restored and operated by the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh

4-inch Brashear Refractor Telescope--transferred to Carnegie Science Center:

Telescope

Telescope close-up

Andrew Carnegie --

Carnegie's favorite portait - hanging over fireplace of Andrew Carnegie Free Library

Bessemer Converter, Station Square(NOT from Carnegie Steel or U.S. Steel plant)z

Homestead Steel Works Strike of 1892: Pump House and Landing Site of the Pinkerton Detectives

Henry Clay Frick, Chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company

Home of Colonel James Anderson on Pittsburgh's North Side

Andrew Carnegie's Memorial to Colonel James Anderson - 1904

Anderson Memorial close-up

Bust of Colonel James Anderson

Statue of "Labor" or "The Reading Blacksmith"

Libraries --

Andrew Carnegie Free Library, Carnegie, Pennsylvania(1901)

Allegheny Regional Branch, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh(1890) - First publicly-funded Carnegie Library in the Americas

Carnegie Free Library of Braddock(Pennsylvania)(1889) - America's first Carnegie Library

Carnegie Library of Homestead(Pennsylvania)(1898)

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Main Branch(1895)

Music Halls --

Carnegie Hall on Pittsburgh's North Side(1890)

Carnegie Music Hall with Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh

Music Hall of Andrew Carnegie Free Library(1901) --

Exterior

Stage and Orchestra Pit

Original mahogany seats and balcony

Dinosaur Hall, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
On the left is a skeleton named in honor of Andrew Carnegie, "Diplodocus Carnegii," affectionately known as "Dippy."

Apatosaurus Louisae, named in honor of Louise Carnegie, Andrew's wife

Tryrannosaurus Rex; this skeleton served as a "Type Specimen" for the original description of "T-Rex" in 1906

Hamerschlag Hall one of the original buildings of the Carnegie Technical Schools in Pittsburgh,
now Carnegie Mellon University

Mount Wilson Observatory - constructed by the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1904

Andrew Carnegie poses for picture in front of 60-inch telescope dome with George Ellery Hale, during 1910 visit.

60-inch Reflector Telescope at Mount Wilson - 1908(largest in world until 1917)

100-inch Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson - 1917(largest in world until 1948)