Construction
The Provincial Government had generously agreed to give $10,000 for the purchase of a site and to build a road to the summit. This undertaking was fully met and the road, splendidly located and constructed and costing over $25,000, was completed in the spring of 1915. Contracts for the construction of the telescope pier and the circular steel walls of the building were awarded to a local firm and this work was completed in 1916. The revolving dome with accessories for the operation of the telescope was made by the Warner & Swasey Co., the builders of the telescope mounting, and was completed and erected in 1916, thus making the building ready for the telescope.
The design of the mounting was very carefully gone into by the Warner & Swasey Co. in collaboration with the writer and was completed in the autumn of 1914. Construction was at once begun and the mounting was completed and temporarily erected at Cleveland in May 1916. It was then shipped to Victoria and permanently erected in its building by November 1916.
The order for the large disc for the 72-inch mirror and for an auxiliary flat of 55 inches diameter for testing the 72-inch was given to the St. Gobain Glass Works of Paris by the Jno. A. Brashear Co. as soon as the contract was awarded. The 72-inch disc was cast and annealed by June 1914 and was fortunately shipped at once without waiting for the 55-inch disc. It left Antwerp only about a week before war was declared and it was only by this small margin that Canada now has a 72-inch telescope. Grinding and polishing were at once begun but the lack of the large flat and other difficulties delayed the completion and it was not until April 1918, about a year and a half after the completion of the mounting, that the figuring was finally completed and the telescope ready for work. Nevertheless, for an undertaking of such magnitude the work was completed in record time, four and a half years after the awarding of the contracts.