Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been fascinated with stargazing, bird-watching, photography, and microscopy, and consequently vintage telescopes, binoculars, cameras, microscopes, and optical and scientific instruments in general. I began my career in an optics laboratory at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, and went on to become a Chartered Engineer. After a successful career in science and engineering, spanning more than three decades, I left the corporate world to make stringed instruments and write fiction and non-fiction. Brass and Glass: Optical Instruments and Their Makers is my first non-fiction book. My novels include An Accident of Birth, and Galactic Alliance: Betrayal. I live in Kent, England with my wife, Margo, and our cat.


I wrote

Brass and Glass: Optical Instruments and Their Makers

By Tony Benson,

Book cover of Brass and Glass: Optical Instruments and Their Makers

What is my book about?

This book is an encyclopaedia of optical instruments and the individuals and companies, from the earliest to the end of…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Elizabethan Instrument Makers: The Origins of the London Trade in Precision Instrument Making

Tony Benson Why did I love this book?

This book provides a history of the London instrument makers who worked during the period 1540 to 1610. Few precision instruments survive from this period, and Gerard L’E Turner has constructed a fascinating in-depth account of the London trade and the instrument makers of the time, as well as providing a description and history of the different kinds of instrument, and a detailed descriptive catalogue of the known surviving instruments. This is an invaluable resource about a period considered to be the dawn of the precision instrument trade in England.

By Gerard L'E. Turner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Elizabethan Instrument Makers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Europe in the sixteenth century experienced a period of unprecedented vitality and innovation in the spheres of science and commerce. The Americas had been discovered and the colonizing nations had an urgent need for mathematical instruments for navigation and surveying. The Elizabethan age saw the establishment of the precision instrument-making trade in London, from 1540, a trade that would become world-famous in the succeeding two centuries.The first of a group of
London makers was an immigrant from Flanders, Thomas Gemini, succeeded by the Englishman, Humfrey Cole.It has proved possible to find over 100 surviving mathematical instruments, signed and unsigned, made…


Book cover of Scientific Instruments of the 17th and 18th Centuries and Their Makers

Tony Benson Why did I love this book?

This comprehensive account traces the instrument makers, the instruments, and the social and scientific factors that resulted in the burgeoning European scientific instrument trade during the 17th and 18th centuries. Huge scientific advances were made during this period, and these would not have been possible without corresponding advances in the capabilities and accuracy of the available scientific instruments, and the development of new types of instruments. M. Daumas describes the scientific challenges faced by scholars, practical astronomers, surveyors, navigators, and others, and the close collaboration between them and the artisans who developed and produced the required instruments. Translated from the French by the science historian Dr. Mary Holbrook, this is a fascinating, and highly informative book.

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Book cover of A School for Unusual Girls

A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin,

A spy school for girls amidst Jane Austen’s high society.

Daughters of the Beau Monde who don’t fit London society’s strict mold are banished to Stranje House, where the headmistress trains these unusually gifted girls to enter the dangerous world of spies in the Napoleonic wars. #1 NYT bestselling author…

Book cover of Making Scientific Instruments in the Industrial Revolution

Tony Benson Why did I love this book?

Much of the literature about British scientific instrument making focuses on the London trade. This book explores the history of British provincial instrument making from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century. A.D. Morrison-Low places this trade in the context of the London market, as well as examining the social and economic factors, the origins of the provincial trade, the nature of their market, and how industrialisation impacted the instrument makers. A substantial appendix contains a directory of the provincial makers, their addresses, and business successions. This is not only an in-depth and interesting historical account, it’s also a valuable reference.

By A.D. Morrison-Low,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Making Scientific Instruments in the Industrial Revolution as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

At the start of the Industrial Revolution, it appeared that most scientific instruments were made and sold in London, but by the time of the Great Exhibition in 1851, a number of provincial firms had the self-confidence to exhibit their products in London to an international audience. How had this change come about, and why? This book looks at the four main, and two lesser, English centres known for instrument production outside the capital: Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield, along with the older population centres in Bristol and York. Making wide use of new sources, Dr Morrison-Low, curator of history…


Book cover of Nineteenth-Century Scientific Instruments

Tony Benson Why did I love this book?

During the 19th century, the scientific instrument industry underwent a transformation. Not only did industrialisation see companies and corporations gradually take the place of individual skilled instrument makers working in their own names, but science took some new, previously unseen, directions. These included disciplines such as electromagnetism, vacuum technology, and spectroscopy, and required new instruments and new skills. This book describes the science and associated instruments in each of fifteen scientific disciplines, with photographs and information about the instruments, background, history, and makers. This is an excellent source of information for historians, collectors, and curators.

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Book cover of Genomics: A Revolution in Health and Disease Discovery

Genomics by Whitney Stewart,

Over the past 50 years, scientists have made incredible progress in the application of genetic research to human health care and disease treatment. Innovative tools and techniques, including gene therapy and CRISPR-Cas9 editing, can treat inherited disorders that were previously untreatable, or prevent them from happening in the first place.…

Book cover of Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers, 1550-1851

Tony Benson Why did I love this book?

This is a detailed directory, with alphabetical entries, one for each instrument maker showing, where available, dates, addresses, guild membership, apprentice and apprentice-master relationships, and other pertinent information for each. The information is of great value to collectors, researchers, curators, and anyone who wishes to date antique scientific instruments, and learn more about the makers.

By Gloria Clifton, Gerard L.E. Turner (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers, 1550-1851 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This publication lists over 5,000 scientific instrument makers and retailers working in the British Isles, together with a further 10,000 names of apprentices and associates. The directory transforms our understanding of the history of the scientific instrument-making trades in Britain.

Each entry includes estimated working dates, specific trades, addresses, training, apprentices, types of instruments made and brief biographical details. As such this volume not only provides essential information for collectors, dealers, museum curators and scholars, but it will also have much to offer economic, social and family historians, with its evidence about master-apprentice links, trade connections and family relationships.


Explore my book 😀

Brass and Glass: Optical Instruments and Their Makers

By Tony Benson,

Book cover of Brass and Glass: Optical Instruments and Their Makers

What is my book about?

This book is an encyclopaedia of optical instruments and the individuals and companies, from the earliest to the end of the 20th century, who have made them.

Considerably updated and expanded on the first edition, it contains over 3000 alphabetical entries, including optical instrument makers and brands, telescopes, binoculars, microscopes, cameras, navigation instruments, scientific instruments, surveying instruments, military optical ordnance, laboratory & educational instruments, medical instruments, and optical terminology. There are appendices containing information on selected related subjects such as optical glass and eyepiece designs.

Book cover of Elizabethan Instrument Makers: The Origins of the London Trade in Precision Instrument Making
Book cover of Scientific Instruments of the 17th and 18th Centuries and Their Makers
Book cover of Making Scientific Instruments in the Industrial Revolution

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