T. Cooke & Sons

T. Cooke & Sons was an English instrument-making firm, headquartered in York. It was founded by Thomas Cooke by 1837.

History

The Fry 8-inch-aperture refracting telescope, manufactured by Thomas Cooke in the 1860s, at the University of London Observatory.

By 1855 Thomas Cooke had built a factory at Bishophill in York.[1][2]

The firm built the clock face on the Darlington clock tower.[3]

Following the death of Cooke in 1868, the business was continued by his sons.[2][4]

In 1914, a new factory was built in Bishophill.[4] In 1915 Vickers acquired a controlling stake in the company.[1]

In 1922 Vickers merged it with Troughton & Simms to form Cooke, Troughton & Simms.[5]

In 1924 the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Vickers.[1] In 1939 another factory was built on a larger site in Haxby Road and during the Second World War, the company employed 3,300 people.[1]

In 1963 the company was renamed Vickers Instruments.[1]

In 1989 the company was sold to Bio-Rad Micromeasurements, apart from the defence products, which were sold to British Aerospace.[1]

The Haxby Road site was demolished in 2008.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Vickers Instruments - Borthwick Institute for Archives, The University of York
  2. 1 2 Pritchard, Charles (1868). "Thomas Cooke". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. London: Royal Astronomical Society. 129: 130–135. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  3. ↑ http://www.visitdarlington.com/images/icons_large/icon_pdf.gif
  4. 1 2 Focus falls on Vickers Instruments (From York Press)
  5. ↑ "Notes". The Observatory. 45: 403. 1922. Retrieved 15 November 2015. (About the merger with Troughton & Simms.)
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