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Joseph Bancroft Reade

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Rev.Joseph Bancroft ReadeFRSFRMS(5 April 1801 – 12 December 1870) was an English clergyman, amateur scientist and pioneer of photography. A gentleman scientist, Reade co-founded theRoyal Microscopical Societyand theRoyal Meteorological Society.

Early life[edit]

BornLeeds,he was the eldest of six sons and two daughters. His father, Thomas Shaw Bancroft Reade (1776–1841), was a merchant and Christianpamphleteerwho actively supported theBritish and Foreign Bible Society.His mother, SarahnéePaley (d. 1825), was a relative ofWilliam Paley.He was educated atLeeds Grammar School,Trinity College, CambridgeandGonville and Caius College, Cambridge,graduating in 1825.[1]

Clerical career[edit]

Reade wasordainedadeaconin theChurch of Englandand becamecurateofKegworth,Leicestershire. He married Charlotte Dorothy Farish (1796–1882), niece ofWilliam Farishin 1825, and the couple parented three children, none of whom lived beyond 21 years of age. Reade was ordained priest in 1826 and took his master's degree in 1828.[1]

In 1829, Reade became curate ofHalifax Parish Churchwhere he befriended amateurmeteorologistJohn Waterhouse,who would later invent theWaterhouse stop.In 1832 he took a part-time curacy atHarrow Weald,and in 1834 became proprietor of a school inPeckham.[1]

John Leeand theRoyal Astronomical Societyjointly owned theadvowsonof theparishofStone, Buckinghamshireand they appointed Readevicarin 1839. In his 20 years as incumbent, Reade established a school and anastronomicalobservatory.[1][2]

In 1859, Reade became vicar ofEllesborough,Buckinghamshire, and from 1863 until his death,rectorofBishopsbourne,nearCanterbury.Towards the end of his life, Reade suffered from cancer and died fromjaundiceat the Bishopsbournerectory.He was buried at St Mary's Church.[1]

Scientific work[edit]

Reade was an enthusiastic amateur scientist. His first work was inopticsand, in particular,microscopy.His firstscientific paperin 1836 was on the use of a pair of convexlensesto focus light on a microscopic specimen without overheating.[3]Reade was interested inchemistryandbotany,performing microscopic investigations of various specimens includingmicrofossils.[4]His knowledge of metal salts led to an 1846 ink patent. A design for atelescopeeyepiecewon a medal atThe Great Exhibitionin 1851, and he designed acondenser,known as "Reade'skettledrum"(1861), and a novelprism(1869).[1]

In September 1839, Reade was one of 17 gentlemen scientists who met at 50Wellclose Square, London,the home ofJohn Thomas Quekett,to found the Microscopical Society of London, which later became theRoyal Microscopical Society.[5]

Photography[edit]

Reade was present at theRoyal Societyto hearWilliam Fox Talbot's first presentations on photography in February 1839 and immediately started to experiment himself.

Reade was also at the Royal Society on 14 March to hear SirJohn Herschel's seminal paper on photography in which Herschel proposedsodium hyposulfiteas afixer. (The fictional discovery of a salt-solution fixer is portrayed in the filmThe Governess.)

Herschel also made some observations on the light sensitivity ofsilver carbonate,nitrateandacetateas being superior tosilver chloride.[6]

Reade began experimenting with light-sensitive substances in asolar microscope,for the intensity of the light it projected to produce images of small transparent objects.[7]He soon discovered that he could get much better results when the silver salt was applied not to paper but to tanned leather.[7]Allegedly, he used his wife'sglovesfor experiments. Reade conjectured that the difference in sensitivity was caused bygallic acidused fortanning,and indeed by treating paper with gallic acid before soaking it in silver nitrate solution, he could drastically increase the sensitivity.[1][7]

In 1854, Reade testified at theTalbot v. Larochetrial,where Laroche tried to prove that Talbot'scalotypepatent was invalid because the use of gallic acid was first discovered by Reade, from whom Talbot learned it. In his testimony, however, Reade upheld Talbot's originality, explaining that while he had used gallic acid forpreprocessingthe light-sensitive paper, Talbot was the first to discover that gallic acid canrevealthelatent imagein an already exposed paper,i.e.he was the first todevelopa photographic material.[1]In fact, Reade erred in making the latter broad statement, as the earlierDaguerreotypeprocess also involved the chemical development of an initially invisible latent image.

Offices and honours[edit]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^abcdefghijklmnWood (2004)
  2. ^The Stone observatory is described in theMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society(1853)
  3. ^Reade, J. B. (1830–7) "Observations and experiments on the solar rays that occasion heat"Proceedings of the Royal Society,3457
  4. ^Reade, J. B. (1838) "Observations of some new organic remains in the flint of chalk"Annals of Natural History
  5. ^Turner, G. L'E (1989). "The origins of the Royal Microscopical Society".Journal of Microscopy.155(3).Oxford:Royal Microscopical Society:235–248.doi:10.1111/j.1365-2818.1989.tb02888.x.ISSN1365-2818.S2CID93222711.
  6. ^Wood (1980)
  7. ^abcWerge, John (1973).The evolution of photography.New York: Arno Press.ISBN0-405-04949-8.OCLC524089.
  8. ^Turner, Gerald L'E. (1989).God bless the microscope!: a history of the Royal Microscopical Society over 150 years(1st ed.). [Oxford]: Royal Microscopical Society. pp. 7–8.ISBN9780950246345.Retrieved11 February2018.
  9. ^"The Royal Meteorological Society – A Brief History".Archived fromthe originalon 12 July 2007.Retrieved8 August2007.

Bibliography[edit]

For all of R. D. Wood's publications see his "Midley History of early Photography".Archived fromthe originalon 8 February 2014.midley.co.uk (archived at UK WebArchive).

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