John Dollond

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John Dollond

1706-1761

English optician famous for inventing achromatic lenses. Objects viewed through lenses are fringed by interfering colors. This chromatic aberration is caused by lenses differently refracting the various wavelengths composing white light. The stronger the lens the more chromatically disturbed the image. Dollond succeeded in eliminating aberration by combining two lenses such that one reversed the effects of the other (1758). Chester Moor Hall (1703-1771) had been producing such lenses since 1733 but failed to publicize his work.

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