William Simms (7 December 1793 - 21 June 1860) was a British scientific instrument maker. Simms specialised in surveying instruments and from 1817 supplied theodolites to the Ordnance Survey and then to the East India Company, including those used by George Everest. On a larger scale he supplied telescopes, mural circles and other astronomical instruments to observatories at Krakow, Madras, Cambridge, Lucknow, Calcutta, Edinburgh, Brussels, Greenwich and other places. By the close of his career he had supplied most of the world's leading observatories with equipment. Read more