In 1782 John Troughton purchased Benjamin Cole's shop in Fleet Street, London enabling him to sell his own signed products. His instrument making business supported several dynasties of Troughtons before becoming Troughton and Simms and later still Cooke Troughton & Simms. This firm was one of the most well respected firms of instrument makers of the 1800s.

While his brother enjoyed some early success, the business really expanded once Edward Troughton (1756-1835) took over the business in 1807. Edward and his brother John were both designers and manufacturers of instruments and the quality of their work won them contracts with the leading Government bodies of the time. These included The Royal Society, the Greenwich Royal Observatory, the Board of Longitude, the Board of Ordinance and the East India Company.

One of the main factors in the success of the business was the use of a dividing engine which could speed up the laborious process of marking the small divisions of measurement necessary for scientific instruments. This machine was based on that designed by Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800) which had won a prize from the British Board of Longitude in 1775. As a condition of the prize the Board of Longitude instructed Ramsden to allow up to ten other instrument makers to copy his machine. One of these was John Troughton and the new machines established both Ramsden's and Troughton's reputations. The dividing engine speeded up both accuracy and production and rather than spending 12 weeks, six days a week and eight hours a day graduating two meridian circles this machine enabled the same job to be completed in around 10 hours.

The workshop produced a broad range of instruments from large telescopes and theodolites through to smaller mathematical instruments. Before 1835 most of the optics appear to have been supplied by Dollond as Edward Troughton was reputed to be colour blind. It is also important to note that from the early years the precision engineering of castings and turnings of their instruments were mainly outsourced to Maudslay Field & Donkin or Ransome's & May.

One of Edward Troughton's apprentices, William Simms, was taken into partnership in 1826 and after Edward died in 1835, Simms became the manager of the establishment and the company became Troughton & Simms. Under Simms the company continued to expand and produced instruments for Britain and her colonies as well as for markets in Europe and America. When William Simms died in 1860 the estate was worth around £80,000. The company was next managed by William Simms (junior) and his cousin James who carried the firm into the industrial age.

During the 1860s they moved the company from Fleet St to two acres of land at Charlton on Woolwich Road and by 1866 the factory employed 61 men and 20 boys. For the 1874 transit of Venus, Troughton & Simms made only five transits and four portable azimuths but did refurbish some older telescopes loaned for the occasion. Telescopes and transits of the period were often hybrids with the structure ordered from Grubb's or Troughton & Simms with lenses from Cooke.

However by 1887 the company was able to produce all the parts necessary for their instrument and the company employed nearly 200 people. James Simms died in 1915 and the company was turned into a limited liability company by his two sons William and James. Things however were not so easy for the two sons and in 1922 the business was bought out by their rival T. Cooke & Sons becoming Cooke, Troughton & Simms.

Geoff Barker, Assistant Curator, December 2007

+ Astronomical telescopes
+ Scientific equipment
+ Astronomy

Images on this site are reproduced for the purposes of research and study only. Whilst every effort has been made to trace the Copyright holders, we would be grateful for any information concerning Copyright of the images and we will withdraw them immediately on Copyright holder's request.