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John Benjamin Dancer (8 October 1812 – 24 November 1887) was a British scientific instrument maker and inventor of microphotography. He also pioneered
In 1842 Dancer took a daguerreotype from the top of the Royal Exchange which is the earliest known photograph showing part of Manchester.
John Benjamin Dancer, Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester
Manchester Microscopical & Natural History Society. British scientific instrument makers 1812 births 1887 deaths People associated with electricity Businesspeople from Liverpool 19th-century English businesspeople {{Photo-stub
stereography
Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics, or stereo imaging) is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stereoscopic image is ...
.
Life
By 1835, he controlled his father's instrument making business in Liverpool. He was responsible for variousinvention
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
s, but did not patent many of his ideas. In 1856, he invented the stereoscopic camera (GB patent 2064/1856). He died at the age of 75 and was buried at Brooklands Cemetery, Sale, Greater Manchester
Sale is a town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, in the historic county of Cheshire on the south bank of the River Mersey, south of Stretford, northeast of Altrincham, and southwest of Manchester. In 2011, it had a population of 13 ...
.
Dancer improved the Daniell cell
The Daniell cell is a type of electrochemical cell invented in 1836 by John Frederic Daniell, a British chemist and meteorologist, and consists of a copper pot filled with a copper (II) sulfate solution, in which is immersed an unglazed earthenw ...
by introducing the porous pot cell, which he invented in 1838. He was a leading inventor and practitioner in the emerging field of microphotography, work he began shortly after the Daguerreotype process was first announced in 1839. His novel uses of microphotography, such as "the reduction of the 680-word tablet erected in memory of the electrician William Sturgeon to a positive one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter", attracted much public attention. Dancer was remembered as a person very willing to share his expertise with others. For example, he assisted the physicist James Prescott Joule
James Prescott Joule (; 24 December 1818 11 October 1889) was an English physicist, mathematician and brewer, born in Salford, Lancashire. Joule studied the nature of heat, and discovered its relationship to mechanical work (see energy). ...
with the development of scientific instruments such as an apparatus for measuring the internal capacity of the bore of thermometer tubes, a tangent galvanometer, and other devices useful in Joule's research. A substantial collection of Dancer's papers, photographs, and apparatus is held by the Ransom Center at the University of Texas.
In 1842 Dancer took a daguerreotype from the top of the Royal Exchange which is the earliest known photograph showing part of Manchester.
References
External articles and references
John Benjamin Dancer, Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester
Manchester Microscopical & Natural History Society. British scientific instrument makers 1812 births 1887 deaths People associated with electricity Businesspeople from Liverpool 19th-century English businesspeople {{Photo-stub