Maker Info
George L. Buff
George Louis Buff was born in 1837 and educated in Giessen, Germany. At age 17, he joined the staff of Repsold, an instrument making firm in Hamburg. He moved to England in 1858 and worked for Thomas Cooke & Sons. He relocated to New York in 1864 and worked for Stackpole and Brother.
At Stackpole's, Buff designed a new form of surveyor's transit. It became known as Buff's Precise Transit. In 1869, Buff went into business on his own. He moved to Boston in 1871. He formed a partnership with Christian Louis Berger, trading as Buff & Berger.
In 1898, Buff & Berger closed. Buff went into business with his sons as Buff & Buff . The firm was located in Jamaica Plain in Boston. It advertised itself as "The Most Precise Instrument Shops in the World." The basis for this nickname was a dividing engine that George L. Buff had built in 1899. This was 28.5 inches in diameter. The firm acquired a second dividing engine of 48 inches in diameter in 1903. (These are now in the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard.)
George Buff died in 1923. The firm, Buff & Buff continued until the 1980s.