William Simms (precision mechanic)

William Simms (born December 7, 1793 in Birmingham , † June 21, 1860 in Carshalton , Surrey ) was a British instrument maker and entrepreneur .

Life

William Simms was born the second of nine children to William Simms (1763-1828) and his wife Sarah. His father, who worked as an instrument maker and jeweler in Birmingham , moved with his family to London shortly after the birth of William . At the age of twelve, in January 1806, he was sent to a Mr. Hayward who taught him mathematics. After two years he started an apprenticeship with the goldsmith Thomas Penstone in January 1808 and in 1909 with the instrument maker Mr. Bennett, who had previously worked for Jesse Ramsden . In 1815, Simms was named Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths , a livery company in London, and started his own business.

Simms, who was interested in the design and construction of mathematical and astronomical instruments, had a correspondence with the instrument maker Thomas Jones (1775-1852), who also introduced him to Edward Troughton and convinced him to join the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce to join. There he also met Bryan Donkin and Colonel Colley from the Ordnance Survey .

In 1817, Simms started his own business and began supplying theodolites to the Ordnance Survey. In 1826 he teamed up with Edward Troughton and founded the company Troughton & Simms , which he continued to run on his own from 1831, when Troughton retired. By the time he died, he had equipped almost all of the world's leading observatories with telescopes and other astronomical instruments. Then his second son, James Simms (1828–1915), and his nephew, William Simms (1817–1907), took over management of the company.

Since 1828 he was Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers , from 1831 Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1852 .

His older brother was James Simms (1792-1857), who had made a name for himself with the manufacture of navigation instruments , his younger brother the surveyor and civil engineer Frederick Walter Simms (1803-1865). Simms married in 1819 Ann Nutting (1798-1839), with whom he had nine children together, and in the second marriage Emma Hennell (1811-1888), from which connection three children emerged.

Works (selection)

• On a New Arrangement of a Vertical Collimator to the Altitude and Azimuth Instrument . In: Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society . Vol. 11, 1840, pp. 165–170 , bibcode : 1840MmRAS..11..165S (English).
• On the Optical Glass prepared by the late Dr. Ritchie . In: Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society . Vol. 15, 1846, pp. 19–22 , bibcode : 1846MmRAS..15 ... 19S (English).
• On a Self-Acting Circular Dividing Engine . In: Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society . Vol. 15, 1846, pp. 83–90 , bibcode : 1846MmRAS..15 ... 83S (English).
• The Achromatic Telescope, and its various Mountings, especially the Equatorial . To which are added some Hintes on Private Observatories. Troughton & Simms, London 1852 (English, google.de ).

literature

• Mr. William Simms . In: Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers . Vol. 20, 1861, pp. 167–168 (English, google.de ).
• Mike Chrimes: Simms, William, FRS . In: AW Skempton et al. (Ed.): A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland . Volume 1: 1500-1830. Thomas Telford Publishing, London 2002, ISBN 0-7277-2939-X , pp. 611-612 (English).