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We don't need to tell you about Ross / Dallmeyer lenses produced in London between 1850-1920, but the history of the company is very interesting. John Henry Dallmeyer (1830–83) was an Anglo-German optician, born at Loxten, Westphalia, the son of a landowner. On leaving school at the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to an Osnabrück optician, and in 1851 he came to London, where he obtained work with an optician, W Hewitt, who shortly afterwards, with his workmen, entered the employment of the famous Andrew Ross, a lens and telescope manufacturer. Here he became their scientific advisor, entrusted with the testing and finishing of their high class optical apparatus. He married Ross's daughter, Hannah, and on Ross's death he inherited the telescope manufacturing portion of the business. Under his management, the business turned from astronomical work to the design and ** of photographic lenses, introducing improvements in both portrait and landscape lenses, in object-glasses for microscopes and in condensers for optical lanterns. An important invention was the Rapid Rectilinear camera objective, and in celestial photography he constructed photo-heliographs for the Wilna observatory in 1863, for the Harvard College Observatory in 1864, and, in 1873, several for the British **. Dallmeyer's instruments achieved a wide success in Europe and America, taking the highest awards at various international exhibitions. The Russian ** gave him the order of St Stanislaus, and the French ** made him chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He was for many years upon the councils of both the Royal Astronomical Society and Royal Photographic Society. However, in 1880 he was medically advised to travel for his health, but he **d on board a ship off the coast of New Zealand in 1883. This is a British-made Ross / Dallmeyer Dallon Series XVIII 12' f2 Tele-Anstigmat lens from the early 1900s, in fairly worn cosmetic condition, optically clean with some debris, with 10cm / 4in lens panel |
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