William Eastland (1702 - )
Field(s) of interest: scientific instruments | microscopesGender: male
Born: Epsom, ~1702
Biography:
English instrument maker from eighteenth century. Moved to The Hague around 1768 after a court decision that granted Peter Dollond a patent on the achromatic doublet. Eastland himself continued to make telescopes, microscopes and binoculars. Many thought Eastland invented the achromatic telescope, although Eastland never claimed this invention. It is possible Eastland had worked in The Hague before; in 1764 an instrument maker named Wm. de la Haye sold mirrors, lenses and a microscope to the Fundatie van Renswoude in the Hague. It is quite possible that this was in fact William Eastland, who advertised under the name Wm Eastland. Eastland had several apprentices, who would never work under his own name, but under Wm. Eastland & Comp.
Collection: Museum Boerhaave Leiden (microscope).
Occupations:
: ~1768 (Den Haag)
Sources:
Rooseboom, M. Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der instrumentmakerskunst in de noordelijke Nederlanden (Leiden 1950).
Fournier, M. Early microscopes; A descriptive Catalogue (Leiden 2003), 208.
E.G.R. Taylor, The mathematical practitioners of Hanoverian England 1714-1840 (Cambridge 1966), 156.
Vries, D. de, G. Schilder and W.F.J. Mörzer Bruyns, The Van Keulen Cartography Amsterdam 1680-1885 (Alphen a/d Rijn 2005).
Zuidervaart, H.J. 'De doos van Pandora', in: Studium 3 (2011), 171-180.