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Men of Invention and Industry-Part50_Samuel Smiles(1812-1904)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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himself to optics altogether. His knowledge of mathematics had



led him on, and friends were always ready to encourage him in his

pursuits.



"During this time he had continued his teaching at the school in

the day-time; and he also taught on his own account the sons of



gentlemen in the evening: amongst others the sons of Dr. Wake and

Dr. Belcomb, both medical men. He was only making about 100L. a



year, and his family was increasing. It was necessary to be very

economical, and I was careful of everything. At length my uncle



Milner agreed to advance about 100L. as a loan. A shop was taken

in Stonegate in 1836, and provided with optical instruments. I



attended to the shop, while my husband worked in the back

premises. To bring in a little ready money, I also took in



lodgers.

"My husband now devoted himself entirely to telescope making and



optics. But he took in other work. His pumps were considered

excellent; and he furnished all those used at the pump-room,



Harrogate. His clocks, telescope-driving[6] and others, were of

the best. He commenced turret-clock making in 1852, and made



many improvements in them. We had by that time removed to Coney

Street; and in 1855 the Buckingham Works were established, where



a large number of first-rate workmen were employed. A place was

also taken in Southampton Street, London, in 1868, for the sale



of the instruments manufactured at York."

Thus far Mrs. Cooke. It may be added that Thomas Cooke revived



the art of making refracting telescopes in England. Since the

discovery by Dollond, in 1758, of the relation between the



refractive and dispersive powers of different kinds of glass, and

the invention by that distinguished optician of the achromatic



telescope, the manufacture of that instrument had been confined

to England, where the best flint glass was made. But through the



short-sighted policy of the Government, an exorbitant duty was

placed upon the manufacture of flint glass, and the English trade



was almost entirely stamped out. We had accordingly to look to

foreign countries for the further improvement of the achromatic



telescope, which Dollond had so much advanced.

A humblemechanic of Brenetz, in the Canton of Neufchatel,



Switzerland, named Guinaud, having directed his attention to the

manufacture of flint glass towards the close of last century, at



length succeeded, after persevering efforts, in producing masses

of that substance perfectly free from stain, and therefore



adapted for the construction of the object-glasses of telescopes.

Frauenhofer, the Bavarian optician, having just begun business,



heard of the wonderful success of Guinaud, and induced the Swiss

mechanic to leave Brenetz and enter into partnership with him at



Munich in 1805.

The result was perfectly successful; and the new firm turned out



some of the largest object-glasses which had until then been

made. With one of these instruments, having an aperture of 9.9



inches, Struve, the Russian astronomer, made some of his greatest

discoveries. Frauenhofer was succeeded by Merz and Mahler, who



carried out his views, and turned out the famous refractors of

Pulkowa Observatory in Russia, and of Harvard University in the



United States. These last two telescopes contained

object-glasses of fifteen inches aperture.



The pernicious impost upon flint glass having at length been

removed by the English Government, an opportunity was afforded to



our native opticians to recover the supremacy which they had so

long lost. It is to Thomas Cooke, more than to any other person,



that we owe the recovery of this manufacture. Mr. Lockyer,

writing in 1878, says: "The two largest and most perfectly



mounted refractors on the German form at present in existence are

those at Gateshead and Washington, U.S. The former belongs to



Mr. Newall, a gentleman who, connected with those who were among

the first to recognise the genius of our great English optician,



Cooke, did not hesitate to risk thousands of pounds in one great

experiment, the success of which will have a most important



bearing upon the astronomy of the future."[7]

The progress which Mr. Cooke made in his enterprise was slow but



steady. Shortly after he began business as an optician, he

became dissatisfied with the method of hand-polishing, and made



arrangements to polish the object-glasses by machinery worked by




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