Porter was an enthusiastic cigar smoker, not sure about Pierce, but it didn't occur to me that the tin might contain something other than what it's supposed to! It sounds like grit when I shake it, so I'm going to assume that it really is. You can consider it Schrödinger's Tin, if you like. ;-) On Mon, Aug 25, 2014 at 9:27 PM, Larry Holmes <larry@kijoda.com> wrote:
It is actually where he kept his Copenhagen. 73
I thought some of the ATMs on the list would get a kick out of my latest historical "find".
http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/440921-classic-ashtrays/?p=6176776
It's at least 80 years old, with a direct connection to Russell W.
Porter,
and probably handled personally by his second-in-command at Stellafane at the time, John M. Pierce.
It's a safe bet that had not Porter and his friends started the telescope-making movement in America back then, the face of amateur astronomy today would be very, very different.