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Cooke Optics Ltd. is a camera lens manufacturing company based in Leicester.
Administratively speaking, Cooke Optics is a spin-off of the company Taylor-Hobson. However, Taylor-Hobson used to be a lens manufacturer and Cooke lenses used to be its sole activity before Taylor-Hobson moved to the market of metrology instruments. Hence the foundation of Cooke Optics can be regarded as the foundation of Taylor, Taylor and Hobson in 1886, and Cooke Optics can be regarded as the successor of the original Taylor, Taylor and Hobson business.
The name Cooke originally came from the company T. Cooke & Sons of York, a manufacturer of telescopes. The optical manager of that company, H. Dennis Taylor, devised the Cooke triplet lens in the 1890s. Cooke of York was not interested in the manufacture of camera lenses, and licensed this design and others to TTH. Subsequently many of TTH's own designs, though unconnected with Cooke of York, also carried the Cooke brand. The Cooke triplet lens was also made under licence by Voigtländer and other companies.
Throughout the twentieth century TTH produced a series of innovations, and supplied lenses for the UK camera industry, for photolithography in the printing industry in the USA and UK, and for cinematography. It provided a succession of technical solutions for Hollywood's evolving needs.
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