George Adams (scientist, died 1795)

George Adams the Younger (1750 to 1795) was an English scientist, optician and science writer who served as mathematical instrument maker to King George III, a post he inherited from his father, George Adams the Elder. He also made globes. Around 1770 he invented the lucernal microscope, a projection microscope in which a large oil lamp throws the image onto a screen so that it can be drawn or traced more easily. He wrote a series of elementary books on electricity, magnetism, the microscope, vision, astronomy, the barometer and the mathematical instruments of surveying, and a five volume set of lectures on natural and experimental philosophy in 1794. He died at Southampton on 14 August 1795, and his brother Dudley Adams took over his business and his royal appointment.