ESO's early history, 1953 - 1975. VIII. The 3.6-m telescope project; from concept to the late 1960's.

This article reviews work towards the realization of the 3.6-m telescope from the early beginnings of ESO up to the moment, at the end of 1969, when Council drastically changed course. These early years saw an Instrumentation Committee, a Directorate and an engineering bureau devoted to the creation of an instrument of dimensions and costs, an order of magnitude larger than anything achieved so far in optical astronomy in Europe. Unfortunately, lack of experience proved to be a serious drawback, and this unavoidably puts its stamp on the present, somewhat cheerless, account. The new approach adopted by Council late 1969, will be described in the next article.