Charles Frank (Instrument Maker)

Charles Frank (Instrument Maker)

Charles Frank (born, Vilkomir, 1865 — ?) was an optical and scientific instrument maker from Glasgow, Scotland.

Charles Frank was born in Vilkomir, Lithuania in 1865. By 1910 he had immigrated to Glasgow and set himself up first as a mechanic. After a few years he married another immigrant, Miriam Lipetz, and eventually opened a shop at 67, Saltmarket for the design, sale and repair of photographic and scientific apparatus. Over the following half century it was to become one of the best-known photographic centers in the city and a byword for excellence in cameras and watches. At some later stage the business expanded into a second premises located in Glasgow town centre at Ingram Street. This became a more upmarket showroom for the sale of his scientific instruments. A number of pieces from his optical instrument collection were placed on display there.

Like many Jewish immigrants to Glasgow he settled in the Lauriston district of the Gorbals, first at 104 South Portland Street and then at 28 Abbotsford Place in 1917. A year or so later Frank moved south to 72 Dixon Avenue in Crosshill, an area popular with up-and-coming Jewish families and which, like the Gorbals, had its share of synagogues and kosher shops. Around 1950 Frank moved to Giffnock, to spend his old age in the growing Jewish community there.