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1871, but must have ceased business (and died) not
long thereafter. It was very much a family concern,
with Benjamin, his wife Elizabeth, and a “widow” – his
sister-in-law Sophia – all listed as opticians at that
address. The three remaining “opticians” were all in
their seventies by 1871, and do not appear in the 1881
census.

Elderly, but apparently still active: Solomons optical
business partners in the 1871 census

The “S” in “S&B Solomons” was presumably Sophia.
Suter’s microscope could have been made many years
before 1871, of course. I cannot find the family in the
1841 census: Sophia appears in the 1851 census as a
widow and lodger. She, along with Benjamin, his first
wife “Mar” (?Margaret), and his daughters Nina,

Louise and Lucy, are all specified as “opticians”.

This was a family “cottage industry”: as seen above, 6
people, some as young as 10, joined the enterprise. I
have not discovered when Benjamin moved from

Yorkshire to London- perhaps just after the 1841
census, since his youngest child was 10 years old in
1851 - but the “why” seems his marriage to his first
wife, since she was born in Middlesex.