Description
The Dollond family were scientific and optical instrument makers in London. In 1750, Peter Dollond set up an optician's business and by 1752, the business had become so successful that his father, John Dollond, left his trade as a weaver to join the business.

John Dolland contributed to the early success and reputation of the business through his development and commercialisation of the achromatic lens, a special lens made of two different sorts of glass that improved the quality of telescopic images. Earlier refracting telescopes regularly suffered from chromatic aberration, which produced a spectrum of colours around the object when viewed through the eye-piece. John Dollond’s solution, in 1758, reduced chromatic aberration by bringing two particular wavelengths of light into a common focus.

After his father's death in 1761, Peter Dolland took several other opticians to court for infringing his achromatic lens patent. He continued the family business, in partnership with his younger brother John from 1766 and with his nephew George Dollond (né Huggins) from 1805, and improved the achromatic lens and many other instruments. The business had an excellent reputation and 'a Dollond' became a synonym for a telescope.

The business remained in the family until 1871, when William Dollond sold it to J. R. Chant, a former employee. The firm continued to trade under the name Dollond until 1928, when it was purchased by James Aitchison and became Dollond and Aitchison, focussing on prescription spectacles.
27/10/2020
Created by: Morgan Bell on 27/10/2020