Peter Dolland (327)

Peter Dollond (1730–1820) was an optician, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1772. Born in London to a family of silk-weavers, Dollond studied under his father who, much more than a simple silk-weaver, was constantly working on improvements to the refracting telescope. By 1750, Peter Dollond had established his own optician business with the support of his father, John Dollond. Two years in and his business was successful enough that his father no longer needed to weave silk to pay the bills and could partner full-time with his son. By 1759, the two were trading as J. Dollond & Son, and with his son’s encouragement, the senior Dollond obtained a patent and won a Copley Medal for his innovative achromatic refracting telescope lenses. From 1760 to 1761 John Dollond became Optician to the King and a fellow of the Royal Society, all before dying of an apoplexy and leaving the business and rights to the achromatic lens patent to his son, Peter. The junior Dollond was now determined to make the most of his inheritance, and from 1763 to 1768 pursued multiple cases of copyright infringement, all of which ruled in his favor despite the loss of respect from many of his colleagues. Nevertheless, Peter Dollond continued in his father’s footsteps, providing a range of mathematical and optical instruments, with clientele including Captain James Cook, the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, and the Paris Observatory. He also continued to perfect his father’s achromatic lenses and other scientific instruments. He retired from business in 1819, but became Optician to the King the following year, dying a few months later. (DNB)