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Spectacles improved to perfection and approved of by the Royal Society

D.J. Bryden National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, EH1 2JF, U.K.
&
D.L. Simms 17 Dunstan Road, London, NW11 8AG, U.K.
Pages 1-32 | Received 16 Jul 1991, Published online: 18 Sep 2006

  • Birch , T. 1756–7 . The History of the Royal Society of London Vol. 4 , 250 – 250 . London I and see M. Hunter, Establishing the New Science; the Experience of the Early Royal Society (Woodbridge, 1989), pp. 73–121, especially pp. 80–1, for brief mentions of the Astronomical and Optical Committee K. H. Ochs, ‘The Royal Society of London's History of Trades programme; an early episode in applied science’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 9 (1985), 129–58; M. Hunter, Science and Society in Restoration England (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 91–112. M. Hunter. The Royal Society and its Fellows 1660–1700; The Morphology of an Early Scientific Institution, British Society for the History of Science, Monograph 4 (Chalfont St. Giles, 1982), pp. 25, 61, and 220–3.
  • Moxon , J. 1677 . Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy Works London For the printing history of this part-work see B. Forman's introduction to the third (1703) edition issued in the series Praeger Reprints on arts, crafts and trades (New York, 1970), p. xi et seq. Also J. Moxon, Mechanick Exercises; or the Doctrine of Handy Works, Applied to the Art of Printing (London, 1683). For the printing history of this part-work see H. Davies and H. Carter, Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing, second edition (London, 1962), p. 439.
  • Houghton , J. 1681–83 . A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade London first series idem, A Collection for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade, second series (London, 1692–1703).
  • Houghton . 1681–83 . A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade London first series second series no. 51, 21 July 1693, and no. 77, 19 January 1694.
  • Hunter . 1981 . Establishing the New Science; the Experience of the Early Royal Society 93 – 93 . Woodbridge
  • Hooke , R. 1665 . Micrographia or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies London sig. d2v; A. D. C. Simpson, ‘Technical Support at a Scientific Frontier’, in Robert Hooke: New Studies, edited by M. Hunter and S. Schaffer (London, 1989), pp. 33–66.
  • Smethwick , F. 1668 . An account of the Invention of Grinding Opticke and Burning Glasses of a figure notspherical, produced before the Royal Society . Philosophical Transactions , III ( 33 ) : 631 – 632 . See also ‘Considerations of Monsieur Azout's upon Mr. Hook's New Instrument for grinding of Opticke-Glasses’, ibid, i no. 4 (1665), 56–62; ‘Mr. Hook's Answer to Monsieur Azout's Considerations’, ibid, i no. 4 (1665), 63–75; ‘The instance of the same Person to Mr. Hook, etc.’, ibid, i no. 4 (1665), 123–5; ‘A Description of Dr. Wren's Engin, designed for grinding Hyperbolical glasses’, ibid, iv no. 53 (1669), 1059–60.
  • The Correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton et al. Cambridge 1959–77 7 91 92 I (1959) (Letter, Huygens to Oldenburg, dated 3 February 1671/2), p. 116 (Letter, Newton to Oldenburg, dated 20 February 1671/2). R. Hooke, ‘Discourse concerning telescopes and microscopes’, in The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, edited by W. Derham (London, 1726), p. 261; see also R. T. Gunther, Early Science in Oxford, 14 vols (Oxford, 1922–45), vii (1930), 737–78.
  • Green , J.R. 1892–4 . A Short History of the English People Edited by: Green , J.R. and Norgate , K. Vol. 3 , 1575 – 1575 . London III
  • Most reliable are the studies of: Nuttall R.H. A Marshall Microscope in the Royal Museum of Scotland Microscopy 1987 35 499 509 A. D. C. Simpson, ‘Richard Reeve—the “English Campani” and the origins of the London Telescope-making Tradition’, Vistas in Astronomy, 28 (1985), 357–65; and Simpson (footnote 6). Older sources are often uncritical or incomplete: Gunther (footnote 8), ii (1923), 298 and x (1935), 264; D. Baxandall and T. H. Court, ‘A telescope made by Christopher Cock in 1673’, Proceedings of the Optical Convention 1926, pt. 2 (London, 1926), 529–36; M. von Rohr, ‘Contributions to the history of English Opticians in the first half of the nineteenth century (with special reference to spectacle history)’, Transactions of the Optical Society, 28 (1926–7), 117–48; T. H. Court and M. von Rohr, ‘On the Development of Spectacles in London from the end of the Seventeenth Century’, Transactions of the Optical Society, 30 (1928–9), 1–21; idem, ‘Contributions to the History of the Worshipful Company of Spectaclemakers’, idem, 31 (1929–30), 53–90; R. S. Clay and T. H. Court, A History of the Microscope (London, 1932), p. 90; E. G. R. Taylor, The Mathematical Practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge, 1954), p. 280; H. C. King, The History of the Telescope (London, 1955), p. 62; S. Bedini, ‘Lens making for Scientific Instrumentation in the Seventeenth Century’, Applied Optics, 5 (1966), 687–94.
  • MacPike , E.F. 1932 . Correspondence and Papers of Edmond Halley 233 – 233 . Oxford and Gunther (footnote 8), x (1935), 264.
  • Gunther . 1922–45 . Early Science in Oxford Vol. X , xxxi – xxxi . Oxford 14 vols (1935) xxxii, 82, 207, 213, 231, 239, 260, 264.
  • Robischon , M.M. 1983 . Scientific Instrument-makers in London during the 17th and 18th centuries , University of Michigan . Ph.D. thesis We acknowledge Dr Robischon's thesis as stimulating our reexamination of the records of the Spectacle Makers' Company. However, we find her reading of dates and citations of the records to be inaccurate. Her account is incorrect on matters of fact and her analysis is totally misleading.
  • For an outline history of the Company, see Champness W. The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers London 1930 n.d. c. Its arms, which were sometimes incorporated in members' trade signs, included three pairs of spectacles; see Celia A. Meadows, Trade Signs and their Origin (London, 1957), p. 110, and J. Bromley and Heather Child, The Armorial Bearings of the Guilds of London (London, 1960), pp. 230–1.
  • For the relationship of instrument making to the London guilds, see Brown J. Mathematical Instrument-Makers in the Grocers' Company 1688–1800 London 1979 1 6 J. Brown, ‘Guild Organisation and the Instrument-Making Trade, 1550–1830; the Grocers' and the Clockmakers' Companies’, Annals of Science, 36 (1979), 1–34; M. A. Crawforth, ‘Instrument Makers in the London Guilds’, Annals of Science, 44 (1987), 319–77.
  • December 1691 . Court Minutes of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers December , 7 Guildhall Library, London; Ms. 5213/1. Hereinafter cited as Court Minutes: SM. Please note that for consistency, and to avoid confusion, dates from this and other sources, are cited using the ‘New Style’ year beginning on 1 January.
  • March 1694 . Court Minutes: SM March , 29 and 3 October
  • January 1695 . Court Minutes: SM January , 19 ‘Ordered that the Master, Wardens and every Assistant of this Company doo forthwith pay to Mr. Ralph Sterropp Warden for the use of this Company Ten shillings a peece towards the Charge of prosecuting Interlopers and offenders against the Charter and By = lawes of this Company and such persons as unlawfully act against the Interest of this Company’. The minutes for that day recorded individual payments.
  • 1695–1738 . Court Minutes: SM, Guildhall Library, MS. 5213/2 on the final page of the second volume.
  • Brown . 1979 . Guild Organisation . Annals of Science , 36 : 13 – 17 .
  • February 1681 . Court Minutes: SM February , 7 and 12 December 1683. On Dungan = Dunnell's freedom of the Turner's Company, see Simpson (footnote 10), p. 364. Cock's Turners' Company membership is recorded in Turners' Company, Apprentice Bindings, Guildhall Library, London Ms. 3302/1, apprenticed 27 May 1657, Free 11 November 1669. The Spectacle Makers' Company continued to make such occasional admissions in the next century; Oliver Coombs was admitted as a foreign brother, Court Minutes: SM, 11 January 1728.
  • January 1688 . Court Minutes: SM January , 17 Court and von Rohr (1929–30) (footnote 10), p. 75, print this passage, but interpolate ‘not being a member’ after ‘other’. The additional words are an unacknowledged editorial insertion.
  • For Marshall's apprenticeship in, and membership of, the Turners' Company, see below Apprentice Bindings of the Turners' Company 1604–1694 Guildhall Library London 1673 November 13 and 53. Court Minutes: SM, 14 July 1692; ‘Ordered that an Action bee forthwith tomorrow against John Hicks for exercising the Trade of a Spectacle maker not having served seven yeares as an Apprentice’.
  • April 1692 . Court Minutes: SM April , 14 and 4 November 1692; the first time only Christopher Cock voted against.
  • June 1692 . Court Minutes: SM June , 30 Court Minutes: SM, 4 October 1693. (Marshall's shop was searched again on 15 August 1693, but nothing found; a search on 9 April 1695 noted—see Court Minutes: SM, 27 June 1695—‘Taken away Eight pair of white and 3 paire of black Spectacles he refused to tell who was the maker’; on 14 November ‘brought into Guildhall to be condemned as false and imperfect wares’.) For the Company's disciplinary acts, see Court and von Rohr (1929–30) (footnote 10), passim. For Mann, idem, p. 74; also Court Minutes: SM, 29 January 1695; 20 June 1695, Michaelmas 1695, 6 October 1697—dismissed as Assistant for selling frames without lenses.
  • Porta , B. Della . 1658 . Natural Magick London English translation of the Latin enlarged edition (Naples, 1589); G. Sirtori, Telescopium: sive Ars Perficiendi Novum (Frankfurt, 1618); J. Hevelius, Selenographia: sive Lunae Descriptio (Danzig, 1647); E. Maignan, Perspectiva Horaria (Rome, 1648); C. A. Manzini, L'Occhiale All, Occhio, Dioptrica Practica (Bologna, 1660); Cherubin d'Orléans, La Dioptique Oculaire le Théorique, la Positive et la Méchanique de l'Oculaire Dioptrique (Paris, 1671); W. Molyneux, Dioptrica Nova (London, 1692); R. Smith, A Compleat System of Opticks (Cambridge, 1738). For nineteenth century practice, see C. Holtzapffel, Turning and Mechanical Manipulation, 5 vols (London, 1843–84), III, 1262–74. For post-war practice, see C. Dévé, Optical Workshop Principles, translated by T. L. Tippell (London, 1945); F. Twyman, Prism and Lens Making, second edition (London, 1952); R. F. Horne, Spectacle Lens Technology (Bristol, 1978).
  • Holtzapffel . 1843–84 . Turning and Mechanical Manipulation Vol. 5 , 1262 – 1262 . London Charles Holtzapffel (1806–1847) had made extensive notes from which the third volume of Turning and Mechanical Manipulation was first published in 1850. Not until 1879 and 1884 did John Jacob Holtzapffel complete a further two of the six volumes originally envisaged by his father. He was also responsible for the revised and enlarged edition of volume III which appeared in 1894. The short section on grinding lenses in the third volume (which is devoted to those abrasive and other processes which do not use cutting tools), was acknowledged by Charles Holtzapffel as being based on information provided by the renowned optician Andrew Ross, on whom see G. L'E. Turner, The Great Age of the Microscope (Bristol, 1989), p. 154. John Jacob Holtzapffel made no significant additions to the section on grinding ‘common’ lenses, other than deleting his father's acknowledgement to Ross, and inserting the comment: ‘For lenses required in large quantities the molten glass is sometimes pressed into the circular form and to an approach to its surface curvature in moulds, a process adopted to save some portion of the subsequent grinding’. Bedini (footnote 10), p. 689; Twyman (footnote 26), p. 11 (quoting Della Porta, book 17, cap. 21, iron tools), p. 12 (earliest full description of lens turning tools); Cherubin (footnote 26), pp. 386ff; ‘Letter from Paris’, Philosophical Transactions, I, no. 40 (1668), 795–96 (glass turned with same facility as wood); see also, A. Wolf, A History of Science, Technology and Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, second edition (London, 1952), pp. 628–52, p. 650. Holtzapffel, idem, pp. 1262–3 (accuracy of surface of lens depends upon accuracy of tool).
  • Cherubin . 1671 . La Dioptique Oculair le Théorique, la Positive et la Méchanique de l'Oculaire Dioptrique 386 – 386 . Paris et seq.; Holtzapffel (footnote 26), p. 1269 (only the improvements in the effectiveness of lathes in the previous two or three decades, notably by Varley [C. Varley, ‘Lathe for Lenses and Specula’, Transactions Royal Society of Arts, 49 (1833), 91–113,
  • Cherubin . 1671 . La Dioptique Oculaire le Théorique, la Positive et la Méchanique de l'Oculaire Dioptrique 386 – 386 . Paris et seq.; Twyman (footnote 26), pp. 11, 12. H. Orr, personal communication. Holtzapffel (footnote 26), pp. 1264, 1266, 1264–5.
  • Bedini . 1966 . Lens making for Scientific Instrumentation in the Seventeenth Century . Applied Optics , 5 : 689 – 689 . 692, 693. Cherubin (footnote 26), especially p. 386 et seq. Holtzapffel (footnote 26), p. 1266. Court and von Rohr (1928–29) (footnote 10), p. 8. Dévé (footnote 26), p. 25.
  • Eadon-Allen , S. personal communication Bedini (footnote 10), p. 689 (Mastro Antonio able to work more than one lens at a time), p. 691 (Hevelius proposed a method for working several small lenses simultaneously). Holtzapffel (footnote 26), p. 1267. Glass Working by Heat and Abrasion, edited by P. Hasluck (London, 1899), reprinted as Traditional Glassworking Techniques with introduction by W. A. Prindle, Dover edn (New York, 1988), p. 146; back cover (‘the proven techniques it describes so carefully and clearly are still in use today’).
  • Dévé . 1945 . Optical Workshop Principles Edited by: Tippell , T.L. 25 – 25 . London Tripoli is a natural silicaceous substance formed of microscopic algae (diatoms) and is sold in broken fragments of the size of a nut or an orange … only a small quantity is ground at a time.
  • Twyman . 1952 . Prism and Lens Making , second edition 11 – 12 . London citing Della Porta (footnote 26), (1658); idem, p. 10; Horne (footnote 26), pp. 12–13.
  • Wolf . 1952 . A History of Science, Technology and Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century , second edition 628 – 652 . London L. M. Angus-Butterworth, ‘Glass’, in A History of Technology, edited by C. Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor Williams (Oxford, 1957), III, 234 et seq. Molyneux (footnote 26), on whom see K. T. Hoppen, The Common Scientist in the 17th Century: A Study of the Dublin Philosophical Society (London, 1970), pp. 128–9, 170–2. Smith (footnote 26), on whom see E. W. Morse, art. ‘R. Smith’, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by C. C. Gillespie, 16 vols (New York, 1970–1980), xii (1975), pp. 477–8. Bedini (footnote 10), p. 693. On Campani, see also S. A. Bedini, ‘The optical workshop of Giuseppe Campani’, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 16 (1961), 18–27. For Campani's excessive secrecy regarding his lens grinding technique, see also M. R. Bonelli and A. van Helden, ‘Divini and Campani: A forgotten chapter in the history of the Accademia del Cimento’, Annali dell' Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze, 6 (1981), 1–176, 26–7.
  • Court and von Rohr . 1928–9 . On the Development of Spectacles in London from the end of the Seventeenth Century . Transactions of the Optical Society , 30 : 15 – 17 . Horne (footnote 26), p. 12. Bedini (footnote 10), p. 693.
  • Hooke . 1665 . Micrographia or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies London sig. d2v; the specific defects included ‘rings and gutters’ in the lenses, made either in the tool or the glass, see Philosophical Transactions, I, no. 1 (1665), pp. 27–36, 31–2.
  • Gunther . 1922–45 . Early Science in Oxford Vol. X , 82 – 82 . Oxford 14 vols
  • Society , Royal . 1693 . Journal Book , November 1 [hereinafter referred to as Journal Book: RS].
  • November 1693 . Journal Book: RS November , 29
  • Houghton . 1681–83 . A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade London first series second series no. 51, 21 July 1693.
  • Gunther . 1922–45 . Early Science in Oxford Vol. x , 260 – 260 . Oxford 14 vols and 264. Hooke noted in his Diary for 16 July 1693: ‘Marshall showed 8 pairs of spectacles, 3 pair glasses ground by his new way’; 4 August 1693: ‘saw the grinding tools’.
  • MacPike . 1932 . Correspondence and Papers of Edmond Halley 3 – 4 . Oxford 60 and 65; on the introduction of telescopic sights, see J. W. Olmsted, ‘The application of telescopes to astronomical instruments, 1667–1669’, Isis, 40 (1949), 213–25. For Halley's lens grinding machine, see MacPike loc. cit., p. 228.
  • Gunther . 1922–45 . Early Science in Oxford Vol. VII , 463 – 463 . Oxford 14 vols records the Royal Society meeting 3 January 1678 when Hooke acquainted the Society with Cherubin's book and was ordered to purchase a copy for the Library. See also idem, viii, 317–18, reprinting Microscopium (London, 1678): ‘whilst this discourse was printing I casually met with a treatise of Cherubin D'Orleans’. Collins had surveyed the contents of La Dioptrique Oculaire of 1671 at a meeting of the Royal Society at which Hooke had been present and had been instructed to buy a copy for its library; see Birch (footnote 1), 2, 984.
  • January 1694 . Journal Book: RS January , 3
  • January 1694 . Journal Book: RS January , 10
  • Houghton . 1677 . Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy Works London second series no. 77, 19 January 1694. Note that whilst the date of the letter is printed as 15 January in Houghton's columns, in subsequent advertisements and handbills issued by John Marshall the date is given as 18 January; see D. J. Bryden and D. L. Simms, ‘Archimedes and the Opticians of London’, forthcoming.
  • November 1694 . Journal Book: RS November , 7
  • November 1694 . Journal Book: RS November , 14 There are no minutes of such a meeting.
  • November 1694 . Journal Book: RS November , 21
  • December 1694 . Journal Book: RS December , 5
  • October 1693 . Court Minutes: SM October , 4 For Yarwell's other activities in the Company see below, note 83. Court Minutes: SM, 3 October 1694 record that Yarwell was defeated and reverted to Assistant; William Longland was elected in his place.
  • November 1673 . Apprentice Bindings of the Turners' Company 1604–1694 , November , London : Guildhall Library . 13 Ms. 3302/1. Nuttall (footnote 10), p. 500 (gives date of birth 1659), Taylor (footnote 10), p. 280, gave Marshall's date of birth as 1663, but this cannot be correct; ten years of age is too early for anyone to be bound apprentice. Marshall died on 20 January 1723, see Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, 26 January 1723, p. 2457.
  • Turners' Co. December 1685 . Apprentice Bindings of the Turners' Company 1604–1694 December , 2
  • Gunther . 1922–45 . Early Science in Oxford Vol. x , 82 – 82 . Oxford 14 vols (Hooke's Diary entry for 14 December 1688.) Dunnell (alias Dungan) and Dunning have been assumed to be the same person and Marshall's master; that there was a Dunning as well as a John Dunnell seems reasonably certain. See Court Minutes: SM, 4 October 1693: ‘Searches were made of premises including Mrs. Dunning's shop in the Strand’. Hooke also refers to Jack Dunning, see The Diary of Robert Hooke, 1672–80, edited by H. W. Robinson and W. Adams (London, 1935), pp. 179, 256, 351; 15 October 1674, 15 November 1676, 30 March 1678. Unless we are to invoke a misreading by Gunther of Hooke's crabbed hand, it is more probable that the latter either misheard or misremembered Marshall when told the name of the latter's Master. This error is made more probable by its being highly likely that Hooke also gave the name of Marshall's place of work incorrectly. B. Lillywhite, London Signs (Perth, 1972), pp. 257–8 (no. 8193, Gun in Ivy Lane, probably Paternoster Row; normally the sign of gunsmiths, but here Booksellers, etc., 1649–1811). See also Lillywhite's typescript in Guildhall Library, Ms. L86/1, (no. 8193, a bookseller, Thomas Ewster in 1649; W. Godbid in 1662; Roger L'Estrange, Licenser of The Press in 1663; again, William Hone in 1811, but no evidence of continuity). Lillywhite, pp. 131–3 (Cross Keys), pp. 233–4 (Golden Keys), p. 307, p. 685 (Key), p. 573 (Three Keys) (none of the many establishments, called the Three Keys or any of the variants, such as the Cross Keys, Golden Keys or Lock and Keys, is in Ivy Lane).
  • Eldridge , C.J. Clerk to the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers (personal communication) . The Register of Apprentice Bindings of the Spectacle Makers' Company does not begin until 1694 , (Guildhall Library, London, ms. 6031.) An examination of the Court Minutes: SM, did not find his being adopted as a member, like Christopher Cock in 1681 and his own Master in 1683 (see footnote 21) or the name of anyone booked in the company as his apprentice.
  • 1688 . Court Minutes: SM , January 17
  • Clay and Court . 1932 . A History of the Microscope 90 – 90 . London
  • Marshall's historical reputation probably owes most to the favourable comments of Dr John Harris FRS, see Harris J. Lexicon Technicum London 1704 art. ‘Microscope’, and the associated plate: ‘I take his Double Microscope here described, in all Respects to be the most useful, handy and ready Instrument of this kind. I have had Mellen's Glasses, and seen Leuenhoeck's and Campani's but I would sooner have the Double Microscope than any of them’. See also M. Daumas, Les Instruments Scientifiques aux XVII et XVIII Siècles (Paris, 1953), p. 60; and Nuttall (footnote 10), pp. 499–509. In fact, the optical performance of the Marshall instrument was markedly inferior to the single lens instrument, in particular that made by James Wilson, compare Harris loc. cit. sig. blr: ‘I can't here omit mentioning the Ingenious Mr. Wilson, which I could not do in the Book, because those Sheets about the Microscope were Printed off before I had seen Mr. Wilson or his Glasses. But I must now do him that justice to say, That of all the Microscopes I have ever seen for Commodiousness, various uses, Portability and Cheapness; I never met anything like Mr. Wilson's Glasses’. They were illustrated and described in the subsequent volume loc. cit. 2 (1710), art. ‘Microscope’. However, the imposing design of Marshall's large compound microscope ensured the instrument a central place in the repertoire of apparatus used in the practice of Experimental Philosophy.
  • Simpson . 1989 . “ Technical Support at a Scientific Frontier ” . In Robert Hooke: New Studies Edited by: Hunter , M. and Schaffer , S. 46 – 60 . London in and idem (footnote 10), pp. 359–65. Harris (1704) (footnote 58), sig. b4r.
  • Houghton . 1681–83 . A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade London first series second series no. 197, 8 May 1696.
  • 1934 . London in 1710: From the Travels of Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach 77 – 77 . London translated and edited by W. H. Quarrell and M. Mare ‘Marshall's work, although this is only tolerable; one might almost say bad’, p. 129.
  • 1934 . London in 1710: From the Travels of Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach 77 – 77 . London 103, 114–15, 123, 129.
  • 1934 . London in 1710: From the Travels of Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach 69 – 69 . London
  • Cherubin . 1671 . La Dioptique Oculaire le Théorique, la Positive et la Méchanique de l'Oculaire Dioptrique Paris and Molyneux (footnote 26) appeared just before Marshall announced his innovation. Smith (footnote 26) appeared well after the new method was established. Smith referred to some contemporary opticians, but not to Marshall or his method.
  • Waller , R. , ed. 1705 . Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke x – x . London Preface
  • Hooke . 1665 . Micrographia or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies London sig. d2v.
  • See Houghton A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade London 1681–83 first series
  • Calvert , H.R. 1971 . Scientific Trade Cards in the Science Museum London no. 256. Bryden and Simms (footnote 46). See also Willdey and Brandreth's statement, Daily Courant no. 1667, 28 June 1707, ‘…ground on true Brass Tools, according to the approv'd Method of the Royal Society. But the common sort of Spectacles being ground on false Iron Tools…’.
  • See Apprentice Bindings of the Turners' Company 1604–1694 Guildhall Library London 1673 November 13 and 53; also Simpson (footnote 10), p. 364, where it is suggested that Dunnell/Dungan may have learnt his trade from the renowned optical instrument maker Richard Reeve senior, who was not himself a member of any City Company. Dunnell joined the Turners through a most unusual route; his master had not been a Guild member, so he successfully petitioned the Court of Aldermen.
  • Salmon , W. 1692 . The London Almanac for … 1692 London sig. C8v and idem, for … 1693 (London, 1693), sig. C8v. Here, and in the references that follow, we have followed the bibliographic convention of giving the year of publication of Almanacs as the year for which they applied. In fact almanacs for any one year were normally published in the last quarter of the previous year.
  • Bedini . 1966 . Lens making for Scientific Instrumentation in the Seventeenth Century . Applied Optics , 5 : 688 – 688 . See J. Dryden, All for Love: or the World Well Lost (London, 1671), edited by A. Sale, second edition (London, 1957), p. 73, lines 203–25 ‘Dolabella: I find your breast fenc'd round from human reach/Transparent as a rock of solid crystal,/seen through but never pierc'd’. Purefoy Letters: 1735–53, edited by G. Eland, 2 vols (London, 1931), II, Letter 527, 330–351. See Bryden and Simms (footnote 46), A8.1–3; see also Willdey and Brandreth's statement, Daily Courant no. 1667, 28 June 1707.
  • Cudworth , W. 1889 . Life and Correspondence of Abraham Sharp 31 – 31 . London Sharp (1653–1742) assisted Flamsteed at the Greenwich Observatory (1684–9), but by this date had retired to his home near Bradford.
  • Holtzapffel . 1843–84 . Turning and Mechanical Manipulation Vol. 5 , 1266 – 1267 . London
  • Clay , R.S. and Court , T.H. 1952 . English Instrument Making in the 18th Century . The Edgar Allen News , 31 ( 360 ) June : 159 – 160 .
  • Sampson , G. 1874 . A History of Advertising from the Earliest Times 149 – 149 . London For the context of this claim, see footnotes 76, 99–106.
  • Court and von Rohr . 1928–29 . On the Development of Spectacles in London from the end of the Seventeenth Century . Transactions of the Optical Society , 30 : 8 – 8 . and p. 9. D. J. Bryden, ‘Evidence from Advertising for Mathematical Instrument Making in London, 1556–1714’, Annals of Science, 49 (1992), 301–36 (p. 324).
  • Von Rohr . 1926–7 . Contributions to the history of English Opticians in the first half of the nineteenth century (with special reference to spectacle history . Transactions of the Optical Society , 28 : 146 – 147 . Von Rohr acknowledged that Court was the first to realize that the block work method in use in the 1920s had been invented by Marshall.
  • Eadon-Allen , S. personal communication see also Holtzapffel (footnote 26), 3, 1269: ‘In the manufacture of common (that is, spectacle) lenses, the block of lenses is mounted upon a slowly revolving axis, placed vertical, and the upper tool has an eccentric motion given it by a crank fixed to the lower end of a second vertical spindle placed to one side of the main axis. A pin, fixed to the centre of the back of the upper grinding tool enters a socket of the crank and the revolution of the crank causes the upper tool to rotate in small circles, which together with the rotation of the block of lenses causes the grinder to move in epicycloids. The radius of the crank can be adjusted to give different degrees of eccentricity and the pressure may be varied by a spring or by changing the weight of the grinder’. There is no mention of tools with eccentric motions in any contemporary or historical accounts or in any contemporary authority either. This would support Court and von Rohr's contention that the lower tool was not rotated in Marshall's time, but it is not obvious that the machine they illustrate has such an eccentric motion; that Cherubin's had such a motion could be inferred from the wording.
  • Robischon . 1983 . Scientific Instrument-makers in London during the 17th and 18th centuries , 146 – 146 . University of Michigan . Ph.D. thesis 262. D. Landes, The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present (Cambridge, 1969), p. 64, footnote 1. C. MacLeod, ‘The 1690's patent boom: invention or stock jobbing?’, Economic History Revue, second series, 39 (1986), 549–71; idem, Inventing the Industrial Revolution: The English Patent System 1660–1800 (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 40–8, 75–8, 112.
  • For Marshall's teaching of glass grinding, see London in 1710: From the Travels of Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach London 1934 77 77 for the sale of glass grinding tools, see W. Andrews, News from the Stars, or an Ephemeris for the year 1698 (London, 1698), sig. C8r; Bryden and Simms (footnote 46), A5.
  • Houghton . 1681–83 . A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade London first series second series no. 51, 21 July 1693 for the editorial entry. The text appeared in the advertising columns in nos. 53, 56 and 58. No. 61, 29 September 1693 had added to it: ‘Who hath also invented a large double Microscope a Pocket Microscope and a wheel Prospective Glass with three Concaves in the Eye Glass fit for all weathers. They are more Useful than any yet have been’. With this addition, the copy reappeared in nos. 63 and 65.
  • Houghton . September 1693 . A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade September , London first series no. 60, 22 This advertisement is very similar copy to that appearing in G. Parker, Mercurius Anglicanus, or the English Mercury … 1694 (London, 1694), sig. E8r.
  • Simpson . 1989 . “ Technical Support at a Scientific Frontier ” . In Robert Hooke: New Studies Edited by: Hunter , M. and Schaffer , S. 59 – 59 . London in Yarwell was apprenticed in the Spectacle Makers' Company on 9 December 1662 and made Free on 14 December 1669, Court Minutes: SM; see also Court and von Rohr (1929–30) (footnote 10), p. 73. He became a prominent member of the Company, joining the Court on 2 October 1678, and appointed Under Warden on 5 October 1681, Upper Warden on 4 October 1682 for one year, Master on 1 October 1684 for one year, and again on 4 October 1693. See also above footnote 51. He continued to serve on the Court after serving as Master, his last appearance being on 18 October 1710. He donated £100 to them for charitable purposes on his death in 1712—see Court Minutes: SM dates cited and passim. He is commemorated for another charitable gift of £500, by a plaque in St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden (The Actors' Church), where he is buried: John Yarwell, Gentleman, died 1 March 1712, aged 76 years. By his Will he bequeathed 500.L. to be laid out by the Churchwardens of this Parish for the purchase of 15.L., per annum, forever, to be applied by them, to certain charitable purposes therein particularly directed.
  • Houghton . 1681–83 . A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade London first series second series nos. 62, 64, 66, 68 and 70.
  • Molyneux . 1692 . Dioptrica Nova London sig. 2Q4r. Court and von Rohr (1928–29) (footnote 10), p. 75. See also Bryden (footnote 76).
  • See Court Minutes: SM 1688 January 17 For the use of the sign of Archimedes, see Bryden and Simms (footnote 46).
  • Houghton . 1681–83 . A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade London first series second series nos. 79, 80, 83–5 and 89, 13 April 1694.
  • Houghton . May 1695 . A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade May , London first series no. 144, 2 repeated nos. 145, 149 and 152–4. London Gazette no. 2944, 25–29 January 1694 has a short advertisement by Marshall in which he records his having ‘found out a New Method of grinding Spectacles true, which was showed to the Royal Society and approved by them’, repeated no. 3022, 25–29 October 1694.
  • 1694 . The Present State of Europe , 5 ( 10 ) : 314 – 314 . this part was licensed for publication on 6 October 1694.
  • 1694 . The Present State of Europe , 5 ( 11 ) : 386 – 386 . this part was licensed for publication on 1 December 1694. The rest of the text followed that of the previous number. Almost identical copy is used in Yarwell's advertisement in G. Parker, Mercurius Anglicanus, or the English Mercury… for 1695 (London, 1695), sig. C3r, and repeated the following year, idem, C8v.
  • See for example London Gazette June 1695 3088 13–17 no. 3132, 14–18 November 1695; Postman, no. 83, 16–19 November 1695, no. 120, 13–15 February 1696; Post Boy, no. 335, 26–29 June 1697. G. Parker, Merlinus Anglicus Junior, or the Starry Messenger for… 1700 (London, 1700), sig. C8v; G. Parker, The Royal Speculum for … 1705 (London, 1705), sig. D8v.
  • Salmon , W. 1697 . The London Almanack for… 1697 London sig. C8v, and repeated in the 1698 and 1700 issues. It follows that, whilst we see no reason to challenge Whipple's encomium that Yarwell was a ‘conscientious and good craftsmen’, we are, unlike him, more sceptical about Yarwell's character and particularly his claim that: ‘I prefer pleasing my friends before my own interest’, see R. S. Whipple, ‘John Yarwell or the story of a Trade Card’, Annals of Science, 7 (1951), 62–69 (p. 68).
  • See for example: W. Salmon The London Almanack London 1696 sig. C8r-v; W. Andrews, News from the Stars, or an Ephemeris for the Year 1698 (London, 1698), sig. C8r; W. Andrews, Remarkable News from the Stars (London, 1707), sig. C8v. The atypical quotation is from G. Parker, Ephemeris for… 1707 (London, 1707), p. 16.
  • Marshall reprinted the Halley letter in Flying Post April 1698 457 14–16 Yarwell announced his move in Post Man, no. 431, 1–3 March 1698, and repeated it more than a dozen times over a space of six weeks. An earlier announcement of the move—Post Boy (footnote 91), no. 335, 26–29 June 1697—suggests that both premises were occupied for a period.
  • Bryden and Simms . Archimedes and the Opticians of London A5 – A5 .
  • Quarrell and Mare . 1934 . London in 1710: From the Travels of Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach 71 – 71 . London translated and edited by W. H. Quarrell and M. Mare 114–15, 123.
  • Bryden and Simms . Archimedes and the Opticians of London A4.1 – A4.1 .
  • There is an earlier issue, collected by Samuel Pepys (d. 1703), see Heal A. Samuel Pepys and his trade cards The Connoisseur 1933 92 165 171 Bryden and Simms (footnote 46), A.4.2.
  • Brandreth's apprenticeship to Ralph Sterrop was recorded on 4 November 1693. He was made Free on 26 June 1701. Willdey was apprenticed to John Yarwell in 1695, and made Free 26 March 1702; Master September 4 1722, both in the Spectacle Makers' Company; see Court Minutes: SM and Court von Rohr On the Development of Spectacles in London from the end of the Seventeenth Century Transactions of the Optical Society 1928–9 30 76 76 for additional details of the partnership see S. Tyacke, London Map Sellers, 1660–1720 (Tring, 1978), pp. 146–8.
  • 1707 . Daily Courant , February 20 repeated nos. 1515, 1516, 1518, 1520 and 1522 (3 March). See also Willdey and Brandreth's statement, Daily Courant, no. 1667, 28 June 1707.
  • 1707 . Daily Courant , March 22 and repeated nos. 1594–6. For their handbill see Bryden and Simms (footnote 46), A.7.1–3.
  • Court and von Rohr . 1928–9 . On the Development of Spectacles in London from the end of the Seventeenth Century . Transactions of the Optical Society , 30 : 46 – 46 . Sterrop was Master of the Company in 1703 and 1706. Daily Courant, no. 1590, 19 March 1707, repeated nos. 1592, 1593 and 1597. Their joint advertisement is evidence that Marshall and Sterrop were, at least by then, on reasonable terms.
  • Court and von Rohr . 1928–9 . On the Development of Spectacles in London from the end of the Seventeenth Century . Transactions of the Optical Society , 30 ( 1607 ) 9 April, 1707, repeated no. 1610.
  • Court and von Rohr . 1928–9 . On the Development of Spectacles in London from the end of the Seventeenth Century . Transactions of the Optical Society , 30 ( 1632 ) 8 May 1707.
  • See Sampson A History of Advertising from the Earliest Times London 1874 145 151 for edited selections of the Daily Courant advertisements issued by all parties to the dispute.
  • 1707 . Daily Courant , May 1 repeated nos. 1629, 1630 and 1632.
  • See, for example, Porter R. et al. Science and Profit in 18th Century London Cambridge 1985 1 18 S. Butler, R. H. Nuttall and O. Brown, The Social History of the Microscope (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 1–3; for the wider context, see J. Thirsk, Economic Policy and Projects; the Development of a Consumer Society in Early Modern Europe (London 1978); N. McKendrick, J. Brewer and J. H. Plumb, The Birth of a Consumer Society, the Commercialization of Eighteenth Century England (London 1982), pp. 1–33; L. Weatherill, Consumer Behaviour and Material Culture in Britain 1660–1760 (London, 1988). Specifically see Bryden (footnote 76), pp. 301–336 and idem, ‘Magnetic Inclinatory Needles: Approved by the Royal Society?’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, forthcoming.
  • Moore , F. 1710 . Vox Stellarum, Being an Almanack for…1710 London sig. C8v. Compare F. Moore, Vox Stellarum, Being a Loyal Almanack for…1714 (London, 1714), sig. C8v. Gay was apprenticed in 1668, but did not take his freedom until 1690; see Court and von Rohr (1929–30) (footnote 10), p. 73.
  • We have used readily available secondary sources: notably Calvert Scientific Trade Cards in the Science Museum London 1971 and M. A. Crawforth, ‘Evidence from Trade Cards for the Scientific Instrument Industry’, Annals of Science, 42 (1985), 453–554.
  • Calvert . 1971 . Scientific Trade Cards in the Science Museum London
  • Court and von Rohr . 1928–9 . On the Development of Spectacles in London from the end of the Seventeenth Century . Transactions of the Optical Society , 30 : 1 – 21 . see R. Corson, Fashion in Eyeglasses (London, 1967), passim.
  • Smith . 1738 . A Compleat System of Opticks 281 – 281 . Cambridge ‘Having seen nothing of the practice of grinding glasses, I durst not venture to add anything of my own relating it; but have supplied from Mr. Huygens what was left unfinished by our honourable Author—viz., Samuel Molyneux’.
  • de Solla Price , D.J. 1968 . The Difference between Science and Technology Detroit (Evening address, International Edison Birthday Foundation
  • Bonelli and Van Helden . 1981 . Divini and Campani: A forgotten chapter in the history of the Accademia del Cimento . Annali dell' Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze , 6 : 26 – 27 .
  • Hooke . 1665 . Micrographia or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies London sig. G1v.
  • White , L. Jr. 1962 . Medieval Technology and Social Change v – vi . Oxford and passim; On Divers Arts; the Treatise of Theophilus, translated and edited by J. G. Hawthorne and C. S. Smith (Chicago, 1963), pp. xxviii, xxx. As recently as 1965, the then Forest Products Research Laboratory (just wrenched from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research into the Ministry of Technology) recruited a ‘saw doctor’ in order to understand the tricks of his trade, then assumed to be dying out.
  • de Solla Price , Notably D.J. 1974 . Gears from the Greeks . Transactions of the American Philosphical Society , 64 : 1 – 70 . new series part 7 It is salutary to note that over two decades elapsed, following Price's study, before a new generation of scholars re-examined the evidence locked up in the artefact. See J. V. Field and M. T. Wright, ‘Gears from the Byzantines’, Annals of Science, 42 (1985), 87–138; A. G. Bromley, ‘Notes on the Antikethera mechanism’, Centaurus, 29 (1986), 5–27; M. T. Wright, ‘Rational and irrational reconstruction: the London sundial calendar and the early history of geared mechanisms’, History of Technology, 12 (1990), 65–102.
  • For example, seeing a Greek farm worker in the grounds of the Museum at Olympia, using a mattock identical to those to be found inside. Bedini Lens making for Scientific Instrumentation in the Seventeenth Century Applied Optics 1966 5 691 691 idem (footnote 34), p. 19.
  • Landes . 1969 . The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present 60 – 64 . Cambridge
  • Bryden and Simms . Archimedes and the Opticians of London A.6 – A.6 .
  • Smith . 1738 . A Compleat System of Opticks 281 – 281 . Cambridge and passim. (‘Obituary of Austen Bradford Hill, CBE, FRS, PhD, DSc’, British Medical Journal, 302,27 April 1991, 1017 notes the disappearance of his name from descriptions of his work in epidemiology and medical statistics.)
  • Court and von Rohr . 1929–30 . On the Development of Spectacles in London from the end of the Seventeenth Century . Transactions of the Optical Society , 30 Wolf (footnote 27): Angus-Butterworth (footnote 34); Twyman (footnote 27).
  • Holtzapffel . 1843–84 . Turning and Mechanical Manipulation Vol. 5 , 1266 – 1267 . London
  • Eadon-Allen , S. personal communication
  • Swift , J. 1940 . Gulliver's Travels, Voyage to Brobdingnag , Everyman eidtion 143 – 143 . London Hunter (1981) (footnote 1), pp. 93 and 96.
  • Court and von Rohr . 1928–9 . On the Development of Spectacles in London from the end of the Seventeenth Century . Transactions of the Optical Society , 30 : 8 – 9 . ‘who grindeth all manner of Optick Glasses, makes Spectacles after a new method marking the Focus of the Glass upon the Frame, it being approv'd of by all the learned in Opticks’.
  • Bryden . 1992 . Evidence from Advertising for Mathematical Instrument Making in London, 1556–1714 . Annals of Science , 49 : 331 – 334 .
  • Bryden and Simms . Archimedes and the Opticians of London passim.
  • For an earlier restricted use of the name of the Society in advertising instruments see Bryden Magnetic Inclinatory Needles: Approved by the Royal Society? Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London
  • Shadwell , T. 1676 . The Virtuoso London was an overt and widely acclaimed satire on the activities of the Royal Society, first performed in May 1676. For the influence of the work see Thomas Shadwell, The Virtuoso, edited by M. H. Nicolson and D. S. Rhodes (London, 1966), pp. xii, and xv–xxvi.
  • January 1695 . Journal Book: RS January , 16
  • 1695 . London Gazette , August 5–8 See also British Patent no. 342, 2 August 1695 ‘making a portable weather glass or barometer’. In this instance the Society were certainly close to controversy. Hooke had demonstrated yet another of his portable marine barometers only the previous month—see Journal Book: RS, 5 and 19 December—and the instrument maker John Patrick was offering these for sale shortly after—see London Gazette, no. 3054, 14–18 February 1675. Furthermore, on 31 January 1695—Journal Book: RS, loc. cit.—Hooke had reported that Thomas Tompion had earlier made a mercury barometer quite as good as Quare's; N. Goodison, English Barometers, 1680–1860, second edition (Woodbridge, 1977), pp. 43–6, pp. 206–7, refers in part to this incident, and the subsequent attempt by the Clockmakers' Company to have the patent overturned.
  • Calvert . 1971 . Scientific Trade Cards in the Science Museum London no. 251, plate 33.
  • Gibbon , E. 1910 . The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , Everyman edition Vol. VI , 544 – 544 . London Chap. 70 footnote 1. This gradual change of manners and expense is admirably explained by Dr Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations, i, pp. 495–504), who proves, perhaps too severely, that the most salutary effects have flowed from the meanest and most selfish causes.

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