In New York City, one of the earliest immigrant instrument 

 makers was Charles Walpole, who established a shop at a corner in 

 Wall Street, according to a notice in the May 26, 1746, issue of the 

 New York Evening Post. The announcement stated that Walpole 

 was a "citizen of London" and that at his shop "all sorts of Mathe- 

 matical Instruments, whether in silver or brass, are made and 

 mended . . . ." 



In the May 21, 1753, issue of The New York Gazette or The 

 Weekly Post Boy there was an announcement by the widow of 

 Balthaser Sommer who lived on Pot-Baker's Hill in Smith Street 

 in New York City and who advertised herself as a "grinder of 

 all sorts of optic glasses, spying glasses, of all lengths, spectacles, 

 reading glasses for near-sighted people or others; also spying glasses 

 of 3 feet long which are to set on a common Walking-Cane and 

 yet be carried as a Pocket-Book." 



John Benson emigrated from Birmingham, England, and estab- 

 lished a lapidary and optical store in May 1793 at 12 Princess 

 Street in New York, where he produced miniatures, lockets, 

 rings, glasses, "as well as Spectacles, single reading and burning 

 glasses, and where he also polished scratch'd glasses." In July 1797 

 he moved to 106 Pearl Street where he sold green goggles, thermom- 

 eters, and opera and spy glasses, in addition to an assortment of 

 jewelry. In September 1798 he was established at a new location, 

 147 Pearl Street, "At the sign of The Green Spectacles" where he 

 specialized in optical goods. He featured for rent or sale a "Port- 

 able Camera Obscura" for the use of artists in drawing landscapes. 

 His advertisements chronicled each change in location in the issues 

 of The New York Daily Advertiser. 



A craftsman whose name is well known in scientific circles was 

 Anthony Lamb, who advertised in 1753 as a mathematical instru- 

 ment maker living on Hunter's Key, New York. He claimed that 

 he could furnish 



Godfrey's newly invented quadrant, for taking the latitude or other altitudes 

 at sea; hydrometers for trying the exact strength of spirits, large surveying 

 instruments in a more curious manner than usual; which may be used in any 

 weather without exception, small ditto which may be fixed on the end of a 

 walking stick, and lengthened to a commodious height, gauging instruments 

 as now in use, according to an act of assembly with all other mathematical 

 instruments for sea or land, by wholesale or retail at reasonable rates. '^ 



Lamb had served an apprenticeship with Henry Carter, a 

 mathematical instrument maker in London. In July 1724 he 



^^ New York Gazette, Revived in the Weekly Post-Boy, January 23, 1749. 



28 



