Carpenter and Westley were a British optical, mathematical and scientific instrument makers between 1808 and 1914. The company was founded by Philip Carpenter (18 November 1776,

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a market town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester, England, Worcester. Located north of the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour and east of the River Severn, in th ...

– 20 April 1833,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

)The Perfectionist Projectionist
, Victorian Microscope Slides. Accessed 1 August 2011 and, after his death, was continued by his sister Mary Carpenter alongside former apprentice William Westley.NMSI - People
Accessed 1 August 2011. The company's contribution to the development of

magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that uses pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lens (optics), lenses, and a light source. ...

s was significant and Philip Carpenter pioneered the use of copperplate slides.Shedding some light on the magic lantern
. Mervyn Heard. Accessed 1 August 2011.

History

The company was founded in 1808 when Carpenter opened his first workshop on Inge Street in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. They manufactured many instruments and devices that use

lens A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...

es. Over the years the company produced

thermometer A thermometer is a device that measures temperature (the hotness or coldness of an object) or temperature gradient (the rates of change of temperature in space). A thermometer has two important elements: (1) a temperature sensor (e.g. the bulb ...

microscopes A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisibl ...

, sympiesometers,

spectacles Glasses, also known as eyeglasses (American English), spectacles (Commonwealth English), or colloquially as specs, are Visual perception, vision eyewear with clear or tinted lens (optics), lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front ...

, and

Claude glass A Claude glass (or black mirror) is a small mirror, slightly wikt:convex, convex in shape, with its surface tinted a dark colour. Bound up like a pocket-book or in a carrying case, Claude glasses were used by artists, travelers and connoisseurs of ...

es. Carpenter's expertise in optics allowed him to be a significant figure in the development of other devices and the company would become well known for a variety of products. He quickly became a leading figure in the production of

achromatic lens An achromatic lens or achromat is a lens (optics), lens that is designed to limit the effects of chromatic aberration, chromatic and spherical aberration. Achromatic lenses are corrected to bring two wavelengths (typically red and blue) into ...

es, even supplying

Peter Dollond Peter Dollond (2 February 1731 – 2 July 1820) was an English inventor of optical instruments. He was the son of optician John Dollond. He is known for his successful optics business, and for the invention of the apochromat. Biography Dollon ...

, a renowned developer of the lenses. He made instruments for various

optician An optician is an individual who fits glasses or contact lenses by filling a refractive prescription from an optometrist or ophthalmologist. They are able to translate and adapt ophthalmic prescriptions, dispense products, and work with acces ...

s including John Benjamin Dancer who would for a time help to make some for Carpenter's company. By 1815 he had outgrown these premises and moved his manufacturing to Bath Row with a shop on New Street.

The kaleidoscope

In 1817 Sir David Brewster invented the

kaleidoscope A kaleidoscope () is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces (or mirrors) tilted to each other at an angle, so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a symmetrical pattern when viewed fro ...

and chose Carpenter as the manufacturer. This proved to be a massive success with two hundred thousand kaleidoscopes sold in

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in just three months. Realising that the company could not meet this level of demand Brewster requested permission from Carpenter on 17 May 1818 for the device to be made by other manufacturers, to which he agreed.

Magic lantern developments

Magic lanterns had widely been used for entertainment towards the end of the 18th Century, particularly in

phantasmagoria Phantasmagoria (), alternatively fantasmagorie and/or fantasmagoria, was a form of horror theatre that (among other techniques) used one or more magic lanterns to project frightening images – such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts – typicall ...

and galanty shows, and became more publicly available in the early 1800s. The lantern slides had to be individually hand painted, a time-consuming and costly process, until Carpenter developed a method to mass-produce them using a copper plate printing process. This enabled outline images to be repeatedly printed onto glass and thus create reproducible sets of slides. These outline images could be more easily and quickly hand painted ready for sale. The production of this imagery allowed people to look at magic lanterns in a new way, giving the potential for use in education and other fields. Popular topics included

royalty Royalty may refer to: * the mystique/prestige bestowed upon monarchs ** one or more monarchs, such as kings, queens, emperors, empresses, princes, princesses, etc. *** royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen-regnant, and sometimes h ...

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

and

fauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...

, and geographical/man-made structures from around the world. The first known set was completed by 1823 showing a number of

zoological Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

subjects, followed by

astronomical Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include ...

slides. These slides were for the day very good but Carpenter and Westley's slides would in time become highly regarded for their detail.Astronomical Lantern Slides
. Mark Butterworth. Accessed 1 August 2011. To accompany the slide sets Carpenter produced detailed notes in script form allowing presenters to show the images while running through a prescribed text. Carpenter focused on the manufacture of magic lanterns for several years and was successful enough to relocate the business. In 1826 he moved to

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George IV of the United Kingdom, George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash (architect), J ...

and opened "The Microcosm", a public gallery and shop centred on microscopes.Lundy Antique Microscope Collection
. Technical Instruments. Accessed 1 August 2011.

Formation of Carpenter and Westley

Philip Carpenter died on 20 April 1833. His sister Mary Carpenter continued the business alongside her husband, Philip's former apprentice William Westley, and the company was renamed "Carpenter and Westley" in 1835. By the 1850s the company's focus had moved more towards sale rather than manufacture, with much of the stock coming from Negretti and Zambra. Carpenter and Westley ceased trading in 1914.

References

{{reflist British companies established in 1808 Defunct manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Optics manufacturing companies