Thomas Cooke

Thomas Cooke (March 8 1807 – October 19 1868) was a British instrument maker.

He was the son of a poor shoemaker. He studied navigation with the intention of becoming a sailor, but his mother dissuaded him from that career.

In 1829 he moved to York and worked as an assistant schoolmaster. He became interested in making telescopes, encourage by Professor Phillips of Oxford. He built his first telescope for William Gray. At that time, the excise tax on glass discouraged the making of refractor telescopes, which were usually imported from abroad. Cooke was thus one of the pioneers of making such telescopes in Britain.

He made more instruments and built his reputation. He was not only an optician but had mechanical abilities as well, and among other thing manufactured clocks for church towers. He founded the firm T. Cooke & Sons.

He was succeeded by his sons, one of whom was also named Thomas Cooke, and the other was Frederick Cooke.

External links

Obituaries

• MNRAS 29 (1869) 130–135