constructed reflector telescope in NSW and retained this status until the 40 inch and 24 inch telescopes were constructed and installed at the Siding Spring Observatory in the mid 1960s. The only other amateur built telescope to rival Beames was that built by Captain Baker in 1868 for the Ballarat Observatory and the only professional telescope that was larger than Beames 24 inch telescope was the 30 inch Reynolds Reflector telescope at Mr Stromlo. The Beames 24 inch telescope was also unique as one of the first large telescopes in Australia to incorporate electric motor drives to operate the telescope and dome. Beames designed and engineered other optical instruments for astronomical uses by amateur and professional organisations in NSW. One example of such an instrument is the blink comparator commissioned by Father O'Leary of the Riverview College Observatory which was completed in 1939. This instrument is still held in the Riverview Observatory Collection and is likely to be the first blink comparator designed and engineered in Australia. After World War II these instruments became commonplace. Kenneth Beames Kenneth Beames was born in Gilgandra in 1899. His first job was at the Gligandra Post Office where as a telegram boy he learned morse code and soon moved on to becoming a telegraph operator and postal officer. He also learned semaphore. During World War I Ken Beams served as a signaller for the Australian Light Horse in Palestine and on returning to Australia he trained in electrical and mechanical engineering after war. He then served an apprenticeship as a telephone technician later moving onto the area of wireless making. In 1924 he established a business making wireless sets which operated from his home first in Clemens St, Drummoyne near Five Dock and expanded to include the manufacture of various electric appliances, gaskets and washers. By the 1930s his business was known as Ken Beames Engineering Company. In the 1930s Beames began studying optics and mathematics in pursuit of his interest in astronomy. In 1934 he completed his first telescope, a 6-inch or 15.2 cm equatorial mount, reflector telescope. Late in the 1930s he began work on a 24-inch (610 mm) reflector telescope at this workshop in Drummoyne. He obtained the glass blank from Chance Brothers in England, and then set about constructing an electric grinding machine to grind and polish the blank. At the same time he worked on the equatorial mounting