Late Victorian Fisherman's Aneroid Barometer by Dollond of London & Issued by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)

A late Victorian Fisherman’s Aneroid Barometer by Dollond of London and issued by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) – No. 3617.

Both Dollond and Negretti & Zambra were the only suppliers deemed of sufficient quality and standards to produce this design and these barometers were used on fishing vessels towards the end of the century.

The company was set up in Hatton Garden in 1750 by Peter Dollond whose invention of the achromatic lens a short time after led to his award of the Copley Medal by The Royal Society in 1758. Following this success, Dollond moved to The Strand where John Dollond was appointed optician to George III and the Duke of York in 1761.

Continuing in family ownership after John’s death. The Dollond name continued to be associated with royalty and went on to win a Great Exhibition Medal for “instruments for recording meteorological information on a strip of paper” (barographs). It is still in existence today as the optician Dollond & Aitchison, having been acquired by James Aitchison in 1927.

All examples by either supplier are manufactured with a painted zinc metal casing and a ceramic dial enclosed behind a brass bezel with thick glass insert.

Difficult to find in this condition as most suffer from cracks and breakages to the ceramic dial, this is a great example of an aneroid barometer from one of the highest quality makers of scientific instruments during the nineteenth century.