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Who the heck was Sam Brown (Edmund Scientific)?

Started by Doug Peterson, 09/01/2004 04:12AM
Posted 09/01/2004 04:12AM | Edited 09/01/2004 02:47PM Opening Post
I have the pleasure of working with an ex-Edmund optician and optical engineer who knew some of the old guys at Edmund, including founder Norman Edmund himself and met his co-author of all those great booklets on telescope optics and optical bench work, the mysterious Sam Brown.

In fact, my co-worker was once tasked with rewriting and upating the books and put quite a bit of time into it, but the project was cancelled due to copywrite costs.

With a generic name like that, I always assumed it was a house-name. But in-fact, it turns out he was a real person, a recluse who didn't work directly for Edmund, rarely left his house, but poured out these educational and hobby materials for Norman, and may have been an amateur astronomer himself. His output certainly would indicate that. He died some time ago, I am told.

As someone who grew up reading these booklets and wanting to build all those delicious projects, I want to know more.

Anyone else know the gory details?

"--Granted, that's a worse case scenario. The destruction might in fact be ... limited to our own galaxy."
Posted 09/01/2004 04:57AM #1
Doug-
I don't know who Sam Brown was, but I still refer to his books to this day.
All About Telescopes inspired and guided my first telescope project about 1967. Later I got Fun With Optics and built a camera obscura. And what great fun going over those other projects and building them, at least in my imagination! Tons of practical know how about telescopes and many other optical devices.
I wonder how many others have worked with and enjoyed these books?
Thanks Sam Brown!
John grin
Posted 09/05/2004 02:00AM #2
I always thought Sam Brown was a pseudonym for ghostwriters at Edmund Scientific. I doubt that a real Sam Brown existed.

I had a number of Sam Brown books and they were great, but they read like editorial staff publications, sort of text booky, just what I expected from contributions of different authors at Edmund.

See you.

Tom B.