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Joseph Bancroft Reade facts for kids

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Joseph Bancroft Reade (born April 5, 1801 – died December 12, 1870) was an English clergyman who was also a very keen amateur scientist. He was a pioneer in the early days of photography. Reade was a "gentleman scientist," meaning he did science as a hobby, not as a job. He helped start important groups like the Royal Microscopical Society and the Royal Meteorological Society.

Early Life and Education

Joseph Bancroft Reade was born in Leeds, England. He was the oldest of eight children. His father, Thomas Shaw Bancroft Reade, was a merchant who supported the British and Foreign Bible Society. His mother, Sarah, was related to a famous writer named William Paley.

Joseph went to Leeds Grammar School. Later, he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, finishing his studies in 1825.

Life as a Clergyman

After college, Reade became a deacon in the Church of England. This is the first step to becoming a priest. He worked as a curate (a helper to the main priest) in a town called Kegworth. In 1825, he married Charlotte Dorothy Farish. They had three children, but sadly, none of them lived past the age of 21. Reade became a full priest in 1826.

In 1829, Reade moved to Halifax Parish Church. There, he became friends with John Waterhouse, who was also an amateur scientist interested in weather. Waterhouse later invented something called the Waterhouse stop for cameras.

Reade continued his church work in different places. In 1839, he became the vicar (the main priest) of Stone, Buckinghamshire. During his 20 years there, he started a school and even built an astronomical observatory to study stars and planets.

Later in his life, in 1859, Reade became the vicar of Ellesborough. From 1863 until he died, he was the rector of Bishopsbourne, near Canterbury. He passed away in 1870 and was buried at St Mary's Church.

Scientific Discoveries

Joseph Reade was very passionate about science. His first scientific work was about optics, which is the study of light, and especially microscopy, which is using microscopes to see tiny things. In 1836, he wrote his first scientific paper. It was about how to use two curved lenses to focus light on tiny objects under a microscope without making them too hot.

Reade was also interested in chemistry and botany (the study of plants). He used his microscope to look at many different things, including tiny ancient fossils. Because he knew a lot about metal salts, he even got a patent in 1846 for a special kind of ink.

He designed a part for a telescope called an eyepiece, which won a medal at a big exhibition called The Great Exhibition in 1851. He also designed a special light-focusing tool called a condenser, which was nicknamed "Reade's kettledrum" (1861), and a new type of prism (1869).

In September 1839, Reade was one of 17 scientists who met in London to start the Microscopical Society of London. This group later became the Royal Microscopical Society.

Pioneer in Photography

Joseph Reade was very interested in photography from its very beginning. In February 1839, he was at the Royal Society when William Fox Talbot first showed his photography ideas. Reade immediately started doing his own experiments.

He was also there on March 14 when Sir John Herschel gave an important talk about photography. Herschel suggested using a chemical called sodium hyposulfite as a "fixer." A fixer stops a photograph from changing after it's been developed, making the image permanent.

Herschel also noticed that certain silver chemicals, like silver carbonate, nitrate, and acetate, were better for photography than silver chloride.

Reade started experimenting with these light-sensitive chemicals using a solar microscope. This microscope used strong sunlight to make images of small, clear objects. He soon found that he got much better pictures when he put the silver chemical on tanned leather instead of paper. It's even said that he used his wife's gloves for some of his experiments!

Reade thought that the chemical called gallic acid, which was used to tan the leather, was making the silver more sensitive to light. So, he tried treating paper with gallic acid before soaking it in a silver nitrate solution. This made the paper much more sensitive to light, which was a big step forward!

In 1854, Reade gave evidence in a famous court case called Talbot v. Laroche. In this case, someone was trying to prove that Talbot's photography patent was not valid because Reade had discovered the use of gallic acid first. However, Reade supported Talbot in court. He explained that while he had used gallic acid to prepare the paper before taking the picture, Talbot was the first to discover that gallic acid could make a "latent image" appear on paper that had already been exposed to light. A latent image is an invisible image that forms on photographic material after it's exposed to light, which then needs chemicals to become visible. So, Talbot was the first to truly "develop" a photographic material in this way.

Awards and Memberships

Joseph Bancroft Reade was a member of many important scientific groups:

See also

  • Reade Peak, a mountain peak in Antarctica named after him.
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