August, 1912. 



KNOWLKDGE. 



309 



::^^ ?iuitl)i-miUiciU". J.^I> 

 611 tixnjintiin (Tolr.- 



I'IGURE ii9. 

 Trade Card of Benjamin Cole, a famous 

 optician, carrying on business in Fleet 

 Street, cir. 1760. 



£0 13 



It was in 1750 that the still- 

 e.xisting firm of Uollond, with it- 

 branches east and west of Temple 

 Bar, was founded by John 

 Dollond (see Figure 332). 

 an active and prominent member 

 of the Royal Society, which last 

 month celebrated the two hundred 

 and fiftieth anniversary of its 

 incorporation. Dollond, born in 

 June, 1706, was the son of a 

 Huguenot refugee, a Norman 

 weaver, who settled in Spitalfields. 

 then the recognized centre of 

 English silk-making. In spite of 

 an imprudent early marriage and 

 other difficulties, \shich to most 

 men would have been insurmount- 

 able, Dollond made himself a 

 master of many languages and 

 many sciences. 



The eventual trend of John 



Ditto Kec'of y" K' 

 Worp" S'' Francis 

 Cliild y" Slim of 

 five pounds, 1 3 

 shillings & 6 pence 

 in full of all Ace' 

 disbursed by me 

 for Hooks & 

 Instrum" 



engaging themselves enthusiastically in the work 

 of investigation and improvement in connection 

 with the instruments they fabricated. It is more 

 than likely that Figure ^57 of an interesting 

 ojjtician's card of this period emanated from the 

 Dollonds, as it demonstrated ver\- artisticall}- and 

 effectixcK' the whole process of spectacle-making. 

 If this surmise is correct one or 

 other of the Dollonds must have 

 belonged to the Order of Free- 

 masons, which, in its present form 

 originated in 1717, and between 

 that date and 1750 was closeh' 

 associated with the Koyal Societx'. 

 The discoveries of John Dollond 

 overthrew a cherished theory of 

 .Sir Isaac Newton, and ended not 

 only in the actual discovery of the 

 achromatic telescope, but its prac- 

 tical application. In 175cS the 

 Cople}' Gold Medal of the Ro\al 

 Society (see Figure Zii) was 

 awarded to John Dollond, who, 

 in 1761, was appointed Optician 

 to George III. An invoice dated 

 1763 is shown in Figure 334. 

 The house has continued from the 

 hour of the foundation upon one 



ilosophical and Opt 

 Instruments to the Dukes of Gloucester 

 and Cumberland, at the sign of tlie ('.lobe. 



Crown Court, St Ann's, Solio, 1 7' .(i 



6 Trade Card of John Benneu. Maker of unbroken course of development 



f, Mathematical, Philosophical and Optical , . , . i , 



and expansion down to the present 

 day. The traditions framed by 

 John Dollond, the Huguenot 

 weaver, and the principles he out- 

 lined upon which to conduct his 

 business, remain unchanged, except 

 where change has meant improve- 

 ment. 



The most delicate and intricate 

 weighing operations carried out by 



Figure 341. 



Trade Card of James Simons, Mathe- 

 matical, Philosophical and Optical Instru- 

 ment Maker, at the sign of Sir Isaac 



Dollond's researches, however, was Xewtons Head at the comer of Marylebone 

 ,,,,.,,, r Street, opposite Glasshouse Street. 1785. 



towards the kindred departments of 



astronomy and optics, and in 1750 he abandoned Messrs. Garrard, 



the weaver's craft and entered into an alliance with the Court Jewel- 



his son Peter Dollond---already an ardent scientific lers, are still 



inquirer, one day to achieve distinction. They performed with 



together became practising opticians, meanwhile a machine of 



Figure 342. 

 Trade Card of R. Rust. Nautical Instru- 

 ment Maker, at the corner of St. Catherine's 

 Stairs, near the Tower of London, 1745. 



