High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! John Browning (c.1831 – 1925) was an English inventor and manufacturer of precision scientific instruments in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He hailed from a long line of English instrument makers and transformed the family business from one dealing in nautical instruments to one specializing in scientific instruments. Browning was particularly well known for his advances in the fields of spectroscopy, astronomy, and optometry.