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Richard Reeve or Reeves (
fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
1640–1680) was an instrument maker in London in the 17th century. He worked with
Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churche ...
and
Robert Hooke Robert Hooke FRS (; 18 July 16353 March 1703) was an English polymath active as a scientist, natural philosopher and architect, who is credited to be one of two scientists to discover microorganisms in 1665 using a compound microscope th ...
. His son was also Richard Reeve (fl. 1680).


Accuracy

Reeve's telescopes and microscopes had a wide reputation for accuracy. Hooke worked with him in a technical advisory capacity. As Richard Reeve of
Long Acre Long Acre is a street in the City of Westminster in central London. It runs from St Martin's Lane, at its western end, to Drury Lane in the east. The street was completed in the early 17th century and was once known for its coach-makers, and l ...
, his firm was the foremost fashioner of optical instruments between 1641 and 1679 and a "perspective-glass maker to the King". Reeve was also optician to James Gregory.
Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mari ...
, who purchased a microscope from him in August 1664, called him "the best he knows in England, and he makes the best in the world." Five pounds 10 shillings was "a great price", but Reeve threw in a Scotoscope (
camera obscura A camera obscura (; ) is a darkened room with a small hole or lens at one side through which an image is projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole. ''Camera obscura'' can also refer to analogous constructions such as a box or tent in w ...
), "and a curious curiosity it is to eeobjects in a dark room with."


Family

Reeve's son was also an instrument maker, known as Richard Reeve Jr (fl. 1680). However, the man referred to as "Young" Reeve in Pepys' entry of 23 March 1659/60, would be the older Richard's son John, who took over the family business in 1679 and ran it until about 1710. The older Richard was arrested in 1664 for murdering his wife, but secured a royal pardon, probably at great cost.The Renaissance Mathematicus. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
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References

Year of birth missing Year of death missing British scientific instrument makers Engineers from London {{England-business-bio-stub