Troughton & Simms was a British scientific instrument firm. It was formed when

Edward Troughton Edward Troughton FRS FRSE FAS (October 1753 – 12 June 1835) was a British instrument maker who was notable for making telescopes and other astronomical instruments. Life Troughton was born at Corney, Cumberland, the youngest of six child ...

in his old age took on William Simms as a partner in 1826. It became a

limited company In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by Share (finance), shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by ...

in 1915 and in 1922 it merged with T. Cooke & Sons to form

Cooke, Troughton & Simms Cooke, Troughton & Simms was a British instrument-making firm formed in York in 1922 by the merger of T. Cooke & Sons and Troughton & Simms. Origins Thomas Cooke set up a business in York in 1837 making astronomical telescopes. One early notable ...

. The firm had its origins in the instrument-making business begun in 1764 by John Troughton (1716-1788). This business was successively passed down first to nephews, John Troughton (1739-1807) and then to Edward Troughton (1756-1835). In 1826 Edward Troughton took on William Simms as partner.

Origins

In 1756, John Troughton Senior from Corney, Cumberland, set up business in London, having completed his apprenticeship with London instrument maker Thomas Heath. In 1769, his nephew John Troughton Junior, after completing his apprenticeship with his uncle, set up in business for himself. He took over the business of Benjamin Cole in 1782, a maker of

orreries An orrery is a mechanical model of the Solar System that illustrates or predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons, usually according to the heliocentric model. It may also represent the relative sizes of these bodi ...

at a shop in

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was n ...

called "At the Sign of The Orrery". His work at that time was mostly providing a service to other craftsmen in the difficult skill of dividing circles by hand for navigation, surveying and astronomical instruments. In 1789, he took his brother

into partnership. The

Board of Longitude The Commissioners for the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea, or more popularly Board of Longitude, was a British government body formed in 1714 to administer a scheme of prizes intended to encourage innovators to solve the problem of finding lon ...

was wound up in 1828, but the

Board of Ordnance The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence o ...

(now

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was ...

) started work on the Triangulation of Britain in 1791. This was reflected in the change in Troughton's work away from astronomical and navigational towards terrestrial surveying. William Simms completed his

goldsmithing A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and serviceabl ...

apprenticeship in 1815 and set up business as a maker of marine compasses. In about 1825, he was asked to repair and re-divide an astronomical circle made by Troughton. Having completed this work, he wrote a paper for Edward Troughton describing his new method of dividing which was more accurate than an engine and quicker than using a roller. Edward Troughton took on William Simms as a partner in 1826. Notable Troughton instruments from this period include the

Equatorial telescope An equatorial mount is a mount for instruments that compensates for Earth's rotation by having one rotational axis, the polar axis, parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation. This type of mount is used for astronomical telescopes and cameras. Th ...

Armagh Observatory Armagh Observatory is an astronomical research institute in Armagh, Northern Ireland. Around 25 astronomers are based at the observatory, studying stellar astrophysics, the Sun, Solar System astronomy and Earth's climate. In 2018, Armagh Obs ...

(1795), the

Mural circle A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanis ...

Greenwich Royal Observatory The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in G ...

(1812), and the

Transit telescope In astronomy, a transit instrument is a small telescope with extremely precisely graduated mount used for the precise observation of star positions. They were previously widely used in astronomical observatories and naval observatories to measu ...

at Greenwich Royal Observatory (1816).

Troughton & Simms during the Industrial Revolution

In 1828,

George Everest Colonel Sir George Everest CB FRS FRAS FRGS (; 4 July 1790 – 1 December 1866) was a British surveyor and geographer who served as Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843. After receiving a military education in Marlow, Everest joined ...

returned from India and asked Simms to repair instruments used for the

Survey of India The Survey of India is India's central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying.Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north bank ...

burned down so a new set of national standards of length were commissioned. In 1835

George Airy Sir George Biddell Airy (; 27 July 18012 January 1892) was an English mathematician and astronomer, and the seventh Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. His many achievements include work on planetary orbits, measuring the mean density of the E ...

became

Astronomer Royal Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834. The post ...

and commissioned new instruments. Large castings were contracted to

Maudslay Henry Maudslay ( pronunciation and spelling) (22 August 1771 – 14 February 1831) was an English machine tool innovator, tool and die maker, and inventor. He is considered a founding father of machine tool technology. His inventions were an ...

and Ransomes. Optical parts were often supplied by Dollond. From about 1830 to 1850 Britain was gripped by

Railway Mania Railway Mania was an instance of a stock market bubble in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the 1840s. It followed a common pattern: as the price of railway shares increased, speculators invested more money, which further incre ...

resulting in high demand for levels and theodolites. Troughton & Simms exhibited at the

Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...

in 1851. William Simms died in 1860 and the firm took William Simms Junior and his cousin James into partnership. Optical glass technology allowed larger lenses to be made and these were sourced from French and German makers such as Guinand and Merz. In 1866, a transit and spectroscope were ordered by

Harvard College Observatory The Harvard College Observatory (HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United S ...

and delivered in 1870. Slow delivery appears to have happened a lot and seems to have been partly due to insistence on precision but also the volume of business being undertaken. In 1860, Troughton & Simms opened a new works at

Charlton Charlton may refer to: People * Charlton (surname) * Charlton (given name) Places Australia * Charlton, Queensland * Charlton, Victoria * Division of Charlton, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in New South Wale ...

. There were many requests from around the world for standard measure bars, and in 1876, they supplied the Imperial Standards Of Length gauges mounted at

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson commem ...

and the Greenwich Royal Observatory. The firm produced hundreds of astronomical instruments such as mural circles, transit circles,

sextants A sextant is a doubly reflecting navigation instrument that measures the angular distance between two visible objects. The primary use of a sextant is to measure the angle between an astronomical object and the horizon for the purposes of celes ...

, and other astronomical instruments for observatories around the world. Towards the end of this period other countries such as France, Germany and the United States were able to make instruments themselves so Troughton & Simms made more of their product for the British market. Notable instruments from this period include the Troughton & Simms Altazimuth Refractor (1847) at

and the Troughton & Simms Astronomical Telescope (1880) for Tokyo Astronomical Observatory.

Troughton & Simms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

By 1887, Troughton & Simms employed 200 people at their Charlton works. Military production began to be important with production of

coincidence rangefinder A coincidence rangefinder or coincidence telemeter is a type of rangefinder that uses mechanical and optical principles to allow an operator to determine the distance to a visible object. There are subtypes split-image telemeter, inverted image, ...

s for the British government. Among their clients were the Italian Navy, the Russian government and the Austro-Hungarian Hydrographic Department Observatory. Undated advertisements from this period include the claim that "in fifteen years our output of levels and theodolites alone was 23,000". An indication of their worldwide sales is how often instruments appear all around the world. Troughton & Simms did not normally place serial numbers on their products, so dating them is inexact. The "Troughton & Simms" name was originally engraved in a

copperplate Copperplate (or ''copper-plate'', ''copper plate'') may refer to: * Any form of intaglio printing using a metal plate (usually copper), or the plate itself ** Engraving ** Etching * Copperplate script, a style of handwriting and typefaces derived ...

font, which later changed to a much simpler font. In 1915 James Simms died and the business passed to his sons. They made the company into a limited liability company. After 1915, the company name found on their products is "Troughton & Simms Ltd". After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, business and long-term prospects were poor, and in 1922 Troughton & Simms was bought by T. Cooke & Sons of York to become

Anita McConnell Anita McConnell (1936–2016) PhD, JP, was a writer on the history of science and a curator of oceanography and geophysics at the Science Museum, London. She is most widely known for her popular Shire book on barometers but also wrote many book ...

, ''Instrument Makers to the World'' Pp. 45-49 Notable instruments from this period include a typical late 6-inch theodolite for use by engineers and surveyors and a typical late surveyors level, which can be dated to before 1915 by the lack of "Ltd" after "Troughton & Simms".

Gallery

File:Imperial Standards of Length, Greenwich.jpg, A set of

Imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texas ...

length gauges at

by Troughton & Simms. File:Imperial standards of length 1876 Trafalgar Square.jpg, Imperial standards of length,

, 1876, by Troughton & Simms. File:G Turnbull - boxed ruler 1853.jpg, 1850s 24-inch brass ruler engraved: ''"Troughton & Simms, London"''

References

External links

Obituary of Edward Troughton: MNRAS 3 (1836) 149

* ttp://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/Obs../0045//0000403.000.html Merger with T. Cooke & Sons: Obs 45 (1922) 403 {{DEFAULTSORT:Troughton and Simms Manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom