1.6-inch achromatic refracting telescope
Date: 1800-1810
Inventory Number: 1989-4-0009
Classification: Telescope
Subject:
Maker: John Dollond (II) (1733 - 1804)
Maker: Peter Dollond (1731 - 1820)
Maker: Peter & John Dollond (fl. 1766 - 1804)
Maker: George Dollond (I) (1774 - 1852)
Maker: Peter & George Dollond (1805 - 1820)
Owner: Edwin Dawes
Donor: James G. Baker (1914 - 2005)
Cultural Region:
Place of Origin:
Dimensions:
closed: 5.6 x 5.6 x 64.5 cm (2 3/16 x 2 3/16 x 25 3/8 in.)
DescriptionThis telescope has a wooden tube with brass rings and other fittings. The wood is mahogany whose varnish has been removed. It has a longitudinal crack. There is a brand on the tube consisting of a cross inside a circle. The tube is not cylindrical but a truncated cone, widening slightly as one moves from eyepiece towards the objective lens. There is a 10.5 cm long brass sleeve that slides over a similar brass sleeve wrapped around and screwed to the end of the wooden telescope tube. The outer sleeve serves as a sun shade. The inner brass sleeve has screw threads to take the brass collar holding the objective lens. The objective lens is 4 cm (1.6 inches) in diameter and held in a knurled brass collar. A copper metal aperture stop is soldered to a copper sleeve positioned about 12 cm down in the tube.
The ocular is 9.2 cm long, and slides in a threaded, knurled collar that screws into another brass collar held by small screws to the end of the wooden tube. This single draw tube carries the maker's name and that of an on owner, Edwin Dawes. Both names are engraved by the same hand. There is a protective cover with movable shade for the lens housed in the eyepiece.
The ocular is 9.2 cm long, and slides in a threaded, knurled collar that screws into another brass collar held by small screws to the end of the wooden tube. This single draw tube carries the maker's name and that of an on owner, Edwin Dawes. Both names are engraved by the same hand. There is a protective cover with movable shade for the lens housed in the eyepiece.
SignedDollond / London.
Inscribedengraved on the ocular draw tube: Edwin Dawes
FunctionThis refractor has an upright image and would have been primarily used for terrestrial observations.
ProvenanceVictoriana, Brighton, England, 1970; purchased by James G. Baker, Winchester, MA, 1970; gift to CHSI by James G. Baker, Bedford, NH, 1989.