SI" KING BY AID OF T1IK LKNS 



23 



BYAID 

 THE LENS 



A Monument to a Great Optician. 



All over the country may be found 

 here and there amateur and profes- 

 sional microscopists that pride them- 

 selves upon their efficient outfit. 

 Among their lenses they probably 

 have one or more made by Robert 

 Tolles, a lens maker that gained a 

 world-wide recognition for his optical 

 inventions and improvements. The 

 following clipping from a newspaper 

 has been sent to us. 



"Robert B. Tolles was one of the 

 notable men whose early years were 

 spent upon a New England farm. It 

 would seem that there was a special 

 influence from the soil that fastened 

 itself upon the youth of New England 

 in the early part of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, so many men of mark and genius 

 developed from laborious and practical 

 country life. 



"Robert's father would have become 

 one of the important inventors of this 

 country had he not been hampered by 

 poverty. It is from the consideration 

 of such lives as his that there has 

 arisen the idea of providing materially 

 for men of genius, so that they may 

 give the world the benefit of their 

 thought and labors. Robert saw his 

 father's disappointment and failure, 

 and in his mind was a determination 

 to master some of the problems of 

 life and to better his condition. 



"He worked on his grandfather's 

 farm and did his share to support the 

 family till he was quite a youth. One 

 day when he was taking a holiday at 

 Canastota, New York, he paid a visit 

 to the workship of Charles A. Spencer, 

 a lensmaker. Tolles was so fascinated 

 by what he saw that he soon after in- 

 duced Mr. Spencer to take him as an 

 apprentice. Day by day Robert be- 

 came more absorbed in the possibili- 



ties of his work, and his ability was a 

 constant surprise to Charles Spencer. 



"When he was thirty years old 

 Tolles went into the business of lens 

 making for himself. He had already 

 attracted the attention of scientists, for 



ROBERT B. TOLLES. 



he had invented and patented a solid 

 eyepiece, and in 1866 he took out a 

 patent for a stereoscopic binocular 

 eyepiece. 



"He started his business at Cana- 

 stota, but nine years later he went to 

 Boston and organized the Boston Op- 

 tical Works. He was the superinten- 

 dent for four years, but then became 

 the proprietor of the business and 

 spent the remainder of his life in its 

 development. He devoted all his en- 



