Thomas Rudolphus Dallmeyer (16 May 185925 December 1906),"Obituary; Thomas Rudolphus Dallmeyer" (1907) ''The Photographic Journal'', Vol. 31, pp. 20–21, Royal Photographic Society, London English optician, was the son of

John Henry Dallmeyer John Henry Dallmeyer (6 September 183030 December 1883), Anglo-German optician, was 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 Lo ...

who ran an optics business. His maternal grandfather, Andrew Ross, was himself the first English photographic optician.

Life

After attending other schools, Thomas enrolled at

Mill Hill School Mill Hill School is a 13–18 mixed independent, day and boarding school in Mill Hill, London, England that was established in 1807. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. History A committee of Nonconformist ...

where he came under the tutelage of Dr. J.A.H. Murray who is best known as an editor of the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

''. After leaving school, he entered his father's optometry business, while learning the theoretical side from

Oliver Lodge Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, (12 June 1851 – 22 August 1940) was a British physicist and writer involved in the development of, and holder of key patents for, radio. He identified electromagnetic radiation independent of Hertz's proof and at his ...

. When Thomas was twenty-one, his father went on a long voyage to recuperate from overwork but died during the journey. Thomas took over and not only maintained the reputation of the lenses his father had designed but he continually improved them and added new patterns. Among his principal inventions was the first practical telephoto lens (patented 1891) which he afterwards elaborated into many special forms for various purposes, a rapid landscape lens, a rectilinear landscape lens, some of the earliest rapid lenses made with lenses from

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

, Germany, and the Adon and Junior Adon telephoto lenses. He also invented the Naturalist's Camera for which he received the medal of the Royal Photographic Society. He also designed the Dallmeyer-Bergen lens, which was the prototype of the anachromatic lenses. It was suggested by a painter, J.S. Bergheim, who wished for a lens which would give him correct drawing and soft definition without sacrificing the natural structure of the original. He was the author of a standard book on the subject of telephoto lenses, ''Telephotography'' (1899).Thomas Rudolphus Dallmeyer (1899) ''Telephotography
an elementary treatise on the construction, and application of the telephotographic lens'', William Heinemann, London He served as president of the Royal Photographic Society in 1900-1903. He married Julia Fanny Thomas (died 26 September 1936), daughter of Charles Thomas Lt 54 Bengal Infantry, on 13 January 1886.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dallmeyer, Thomas 1859 births 1906 deaths Lens designers Photographers from London British optometrists