Joseph Gall, Optician

Conveniently located opposite the bath house, Joseph Gall (J.G. to his continental friends) was another merchant of the “respectfully informing” school. Now I would expect that an optician of the day would, as indicated, have on hand gold and silver spectacles, and that he would attend to repair every optical instrument, and that he would direct his particular attention to the construction and adaptation of spectacles for the various defects of the vision. And okay, perhaps thermometers and barometers are a little out there, but he is a man of science and instrumentation, so perhaps that wasn’t an unusual sideline for an optician. But sacarometers? I’ll admit, I had to look that one up. And if in 1844 sacarometers were being used, as Wikipedia would indicate, primarily by winemakers and brewers to measure sugar in solution, then perhaps J.G. was attending both to permanent and more transient defects of vision.