ABSTRACT
Few accounts in the literature reveal much of signicance regarding the early development of the achromatic lens. e Dollond family sold out in 1876, although the business name survived in Britain’s high streets, from the 1880s as Dollond & Aitchison, nally disappearing in the early twenty-rst century when it merged with Boots Opticians in 2009, and its stores were rebranded in 2010.1 ere are some references to Chester Moor Hall but little was known of him. No regard was paid to the optical instrument makers such as James Ayscough, William Eastland or James Champneys, who each employed crown-int combinations well before John Dollond patented his method of making crown-int combinations. ere was no account of the part played by Francis Watkins, who procured the patent on Dollond’s behalf and invested money in Dollond’s scheme to market the achromatic telescope. Indeed, none of the issues surrounding John Dollond’s patent were straightforward and even more aggravation came to the fore when Peter Dollond took sole responsibility of the family business aer his father’s death. Where disputations are mentioned in the literature, they tend to emphasise the successful Dollonds for, despite all else, they did make valuable strides in the development of the achromatic telescope. But the blind acceptance of the legal ruling against Watkins and Smith in 1763, or even ignorance of this ruling by later authors, has deprived those curious about the development of the achromatic telescope of any accurate account of what took place.
