Historical
Documents
Thomas Cave's place of business at 4137 East Anaheim Street Long Beach, California.
Telephone - GEneva 4-2613
Classified Ads
Click on an ad to enlarge . . .
Click on an ad to enlarge . . .
Used with permission from Sky & Telescope www.skyandtelescope.com
Catalogs
Some files are very large, just wait for them to open . . .
Some files are very large, just wait for them to open . . .
1973-74 Cave Catalog
Components & accessories
Credit:Robert W. Provin
Cave letters back & forth between customer. / price lists and envelope
Credit:Tom Terleski
"The Mistake of Buying Cheap Optics"
"We do not make cheap mirrors or diagonals, but we are spending a lot of time correcting them and reconfiguring them for the purchaser who has been led to believe he could get something good for an absurd low price. Quality always commands fair prices. This is true with mirrors. Our optics are the result of highly skilled workmanship.
They are thoroughly tested before leaving our plant, are star tested, and are guaranteed to give satisfactory performance."
"We do not make cheap mirrors or diagonals, but we are spending a lot of time correcting them and reconfiguring them for the purchaser who has been led to believe he could get something good for an absurd low price. Quality always commands fair prices. This is true with mirrors. Our optics are the result of highly skilled workmanship.
They are thoroughly tested before leaving our plant, are star tested, and are guaranteed to give satisfactory performance."
Thomas Cave
Cave published catalogs describing not only his product but also the quality of the mirrors. He included even a little bit of salesmanship on why you should pay more for his product.
Cave Catalog (date unknown)
Credit:Robert W. Provin & Scott losmandy
Parts Price List
Credit:Robert W. Provin & Scott losmandy
Cave Astrola 1970 catalog
Credit:Phil Harrington
On the subject of mirrors . . .
"All telescope mirrors produced and sold by Cave Optical Co., are entirely manufactured by our opticians. They are all made of Pyrex brand glass, and are first ground flat on the back side for ease of mounting. Each mirror is then ground to the focal length as ordered by the customer. "
Alika Herring, Cave's extraordinary mirror maker, testing a mirror.
"We have already completed over 1900 such mirrors, which are now in constant use through 48 states of this country, and in a dozen or more foreign countries. Their users attest to the consistent quality and splendid performance of Cave Optical Co. mirrors."
"We fully polish each mirror with the finest rough on our draper polishing machines. Each mirror upon completion of polishing is completely hand figured and tested with the most modern type Foucault test equipment intil the mirror shows a perfectly smooth, even figure, free of zones, and exhibits the perfect classical parabolic shadings for it’s proper focal ratio."
Link to Alika Herring's obituary, very informative / Credit: Haas, W. H.
Cave Optical Company front showroom