Benjamin Pike Jr.

Benjamin Pike Jr. (1809 – May 7, 1864) was a businessman and manufacturer of philosophical and optical instruments. He was the eldest son of Benjamin Pike Sr., whom he joined in business from 1831-1841 under the name Benjamin Pike & Son, before going on to create his own successful firm.

Early life
Benjamin Pike Jr. was born into an English immigrant family in New York City, New York, in 1809, as the son of an optician, Benjamin Pike Sr., who immigrated from the United Kingdom to establish his own optical, scientific, and engineering business in New York, Benjamin Pike Sr. Very little is known about Pike's early life, but it is known he grew up in the Pike family home on North Moore Street, Manhattan, as did his siblings. It is presumed that he studied to be an optician like Pike Sr.

Career
Benjamin Pike & Sons

Records show that in 1831, Pike Jr. joined his father in business, and in order to represent the presence of his son at the firm, it was renamed Benjamin Pike & Son. However, this name would go on to change quite frequently as family members came and went from the business. For example, Daniel Pike joined his brother and father in 1839, and as a result, the business was renamed Benjamin Pike & Sons.

By 1840, the firm was viewed in high regard by patrons and experts alike, with Benjamin Pike & Sons going on to win a Silver Medal at the Fifth Annual Fair of the Mechanics' Institute, being commended for their "surveying and drawing instruments". The Thirteenth Annual Fair of the American Institute would mark another victory for the firm after receiving a second place Diploma for "specimens of surveyors compasses and levels, beautiful finish" Benjamin Pike Jr. & Co

In 1843, Benjamin Jr. separated from his family's business and formed his own firm, viewed in similarly high regard by the general public known simply as Benjamin Pike Jr. & Co., located at 294 Broadway, which also largely served as his family's home until 1858. Benjamin Jr. had evidently learned the field extremely well as he won countless awards for both the quality and use of his many instruments including three silver medals at American Institute Fairs shortly after going into business. Two of which were for his remarkably "superior air pumps" and one other for his innovative "electro-magnetic apparatus". It was again at the American Institute Fairs that he would win two diplomas that demonstrated his firm's proficiency in both purely mathematical and scientific instruments.

It is here where both Pike Jr.'s optical knowledge and marketing genius propelled his business to new heights through the 1840s through both innovative strategy and market expansion. Rather than simply restricting himself to the market of New York City and those who physically came to his Manhattan firm, Pike created and twice published a massive catalog of over 750 items, in 1848 and in 1856, both fitted with illustrations, engravings, and lengthy descriptions of countless scientific instruments manufactured by his company from telescopes to spectacles. This marketing innovation was not only revolutionary for his business but for the entire scientific world and the diaspora of its knowledge as a whole. It was regarded as the most comprehensive collection of philosophical instruments to ever be conceived that acted as a near-universal catalog of countless devices and scientific products of the age. His depictions and descriptions were so robust and unprecedented, in fact, that his engravings were used commonly for more than a century for analysis of both period and contemporary counterparts of scientific instruments. His work went on to become the basis for scientific demonstration and description in both professional and scholastic environments. Moreover, it was in these catalogs that Pike took the opportunity to further emphasize the quality of his products and the innovative and modern nature of his designs that incorporated all the finest aspects of the age's contemporary science and engineering. He further wished to sway the favor of the United States' growing scientific community and shift their consumption from traditionally European instruments to those of his own firm, and in this goal, he largely succeeded. Hence orders would flow in from all across the nation and even parts of Europe, which brought Pike and his company to new heights of fame and prestige. He then massively expanded his business by demolishing and rebuilding a larger version of his store at the same address in 1850 to accommodate the new influx of customers. Leading to the further growth and development of the market reach of his firm as word spread of its utmost quality.

With such a quantity of both patrons and corresponding fame, the Pike family desired an escape from the busy and crowded life of the city where they had been living on the upper floors of their shop for over a decade. So using the vast riches collected as a result of their massive surge in business, Pike constructed an $85,000 built a 27-room mansion in Northern Queens in what is today Astoria, New York. He was seen here in the 1860 U.S. Census, and despite his famous optical firm, Pike had his occupation listed as a farmer. The home was later sold to William Steinway of the piano-making Steinway family in 1870 after the death of Benjamin Pike Jr., and is today known as the Steinway Mansion.

Personal life
Pike married Frances Matilda Hope on April 14, 1838, with whom he had a son and two daughters.

Death
Pike died suddenly and without known cause on May 7th, 1864, in Astoria, New York, around the age of 53. His widow subsequently sold the mansion, which it would be bought by William Steinway in 1870. It is unknown where Pike's wife and children moved after this.

According to directories, the Pike Jr. firm was permanently closed shortly after.