Jesse Ramsden, the son of a Yorkshire innkeeper, was born October 6, 1735. At the age of 16 he was apprenticed, first to a cloth worker and later to a scientific instrument maker in London. By the time he finished his apprenticeship he was highly skilled in engraving...
Georg Simon Plössl was born September 19th, 1794 in Wieden near Vienna. He was the son of a carpenter and learned to turn wood during an apprenticeship from September 28th 1807 to 1811. On May, 9th 1812 he started to work with the Voigtlaender optical firm in the...
Bernhard Schmidt was born on March, 30th 1879 as the first of 5 children to Karl Konstantin and his wife, Maria Helene. K.K. Schmidt was a writer on the island of Naissaar, which is off the coast of Tallinn, Estonia, in the Baltic Sea. He was also a farmer and...
Reference: John R. Millburn, Adams of Fleet Street, Instrument Makers to King George III. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2000. George Adams, senior and his two sons, George, junior and Dudley, were prominent instrument makers in London for over 80 years. All...
John Dollond, the son of immigrant Huguenots from France, was born on June 10, 1706 in London. He took up the weaving profession of his father, but at the age of 46 joined his son Peter in the optical business. Although he had been obliged to leave school early to...
