The Fenian  The Instrument Maker  James Stephens Escape  The Presentation  Commemoration

The Instrument Maker The following is part of a report written by Chief Superintendant Daniel Ryan, G division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police 20th December 1869. "I have to report that recent occurances having rendered it advisable to make searches at the lodgings of Fenian suspects on Friday (17th) morning. I sent a party of officers to search the house No. 5 Canon Street in which I had reason to believe Michael Lambert......... had occupied apartments for some short time past. The house is let in tenaments and when the officers went there, the occupants.........,denied all knowledge of the existance of such a person as Lambert..........., the officers entered apartments in which they met a female who admitted she was Mrs. Lambert but she pretended not to know where or how her husband was employed and added that he was not at home for a night or two before. The officers then searched the apartment and under the pillow of a sofa found the printed document(Constitution of the Irish Republic)............the wife as a matter of course did not appear to know anything of the documents........ Some shop bills from Chancellor & Son of Lower Sackville Street were found in the room and as Lambert was always supposed to be a Mathematical Instrument Maker, it was presumed something would be learned of him at Chancellors............... At Chancellors it was ascertained from one of the workmen that Lambert used to do jobs for the house but did not work for them for a long time past, but they heard he was employed by Mr. Grubb, engineer to the Bank of Ireland and on enquiring from that.................Lambert was working with his son (Howard Grubb)at Leinster Road, Rathmines and immediately the officers proceeded there and learned that Lambert was working there up to about the identical hour at which they were engaged in the search at Canon Street and at that hour a youth about 17 years old drove to the place on a car, evidently very much excited and having some communication with Lambert, the latter told Mr.Grubb he should go home at once as his mother was (not?) expected so he drove off on the car and has not turned up since. The 48 inch Melbourne Reflector at Grubbs works in Rathmines Dublin 1868. .....If Lambert had been captured I would have placed him in custody on account of the documents and I shall spare us effort to capture him now. It was insinuated that he might have been connected with the robbery of guns in Dame Street and Arran Quay but I have ascertained that he was at work from 6am to 5pm on the day of the robbery therefore he could not have been implicated." The Telescope at the Melbourne Observatory. Slater's Commercial Directory of Ireland, 1881. The Great Paris Telescope appeared shortly after the completion of the Melbourne Telescope and had many design similarities. In 1866 when Michael Lambert worked in an opticians workshop in Paris, Grubb sent over the plans for the Melbourne Telescope and he believed that they must have been copied and that would explain the similarities. The Society of Arts sent a deputation of artisans to report on the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878, and Michael Lambert was sent with the Dublin group to assess the optical instruments. Some of his remarks are very revealing about the conditions of the trade in Dublin compared with those in France and England (Germany did not exhibit): The social system adopted in the French workshops differs very much from ours. In the first place the men work longer hours (11 hours each day) and they take but one meal during that time… In the next place they do not keep so closely at work as our men do, and they are not prevented from smoking or chatting on any subject they please during working hours… I do not think that they get as much work done in the eleven hours as we do in nine. This, I conceive, is in a great measure to be accounted for by their not having a recognised day of rest… They cannot, therefore, be expected to work as diligently as men who rest regularly once a week, and take their recreation at stated times. There is one great advantage which the artisans in Paris enjoy that is denied to our men, that is facilities for educating themselves. At every side they have museums, and exhibitions of the arts and manufactures of every nation on the earth from the earliest ages to the present day, and libraries in which there are to be found works on ever subject. To any of these the artisan can repair during the day or in the evening, and see the instruments used in every science, and the machinery, or models of machinery, employed in every art and manufacture, from their first development to their latest improvements; and he can afterwards enter a library, and read their history or study their theory, according to his inclination. With such opportunities open to them can we wonder that the French workmen have acquired for themselves so high a reputation for intelligence and skill? In Dublin, the artisan after his day’s work is done finds no place where he can spend an hour in intellectual recreation. He has no public library, the museums are, with one exception, private property, and entrance to them can only be obtained through a letter of introduction… This site is maintained by Aidan Lambert