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.
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