John Benjamin Dancer
{{Short description|British scientific instrument maker and inventor of microphotography}}{{Infobox person
| birth_date = October 8, 1812
| death_date = November 1887
| burial_place = Sale, Greater Manchester, England
| occupation = Inventor of the stereoscopic camera
Microphotography
| children = 2, Elizabeth Eleanor, Anna Maria
}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Distinguish|John Dancer (dramatist)}}
John Benjamin Dancer (8 October 1812 – 24 November 1887) was a British scientific instrument maker and inventor of microphotography.{{cite journal|last1=Hallett|first1=Michael|editor1-last=Henisch|editor1-first=Heinz|title=John Benjamin Dancer 1812–1887: a perspective|journal=History of Photography, an International Quarterly|date=July–September 1986|volume=10|issue=3|pages=237–255|publisher=Taylor & Francis Ltd.|doi=10.1080/03087298.1986.10443115|issn=0308-7298}} He also pioneered stereography.
Career
By 1835, he controlled his father's instrument making business in Liverpool. He was responsible for various inventions, but did not patent many of his ideas. In 1856, he invented the stereoscopic camera (GB patent 2064/1856).{{cite book|author=Bennett Woodcroft|title=Chronological index of patents applied for and patents granted for the year 1856|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L7dzFhUqKD0C&q=editions:aw9gsHdgNN4C|year=1857|publisher=George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty|location=London}}
Dancer improved the Daniell cell by introducing the porous pot cell, which he invented in 1838.Alexander Watt, Arnold Philip, Electroplating and Electrorefining of Metals, pp.91–92, Watchmaker Publishing, 2005 {{ISBN|1-929148-45-3}} (originally published 1889). 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.{{cite journal|editor1-last=Solbert|editor1-first=Oscar N.|editor2-last=Newhall|editor2-first=Beaumont|editor3-last=Card|editor3-first=James G.|title=John Benjamin Dancer (1812-1887)|journal=Image, Journal of Photography of George Eastman House|date=November 1952|volume=1|issue=8|page=2|url=http://image.eastmanhouse.org/files/GEH_1952_01_08.pdf|access-date=26 June 2014|publisher=International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House Inc.|location=Rochester, N.Y.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909224010/http://image.eastmanhouse.org/files/GEH_1952_01_08.pdf|archive-date=9 September 2015}} He assisted the physicist James Prescott Joule 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.{{cite book|title=Memoirs and Proceedings - Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=83ksghT9wjIC&pg=PA149|volume=I|year=1888|publisher=The Society|location=Manchester|pages=149–153|chapter=Report of the Council, April, 1888, with obituary notices of Charles Moseley and John Benjamin Dancer}} A substantial collection of Dancer's papers, photographs, and apparatus is held by the Ransom Center at the University of Texas.
File:View from the roof of the Royal Exchange Manchester 1842.JPG]]
In 1842 Dancer took a daguerreotype from the top of the Royal Exchange which is the earliest known photograph showing part of Manchester.{{Cite sign |title=Daguerreotype|medium=Museum label|publisher=MOSI |location=1830 Warehouse Museum of Science and Industry (Manchester)}}
Personal life
He was elected to membership of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on 19.4.1842, and is recorded on a plaque in Tib Lane Manchester. He died in November 1887 at the age of 75 and was buried at Brooklands Cemetery, plot D.2244, Sale, Greater Manchester. He had two daughters, Elizabeth Eleanor and Anna Maria.{{Cite web |title=John Benjamin Dancer {{!}} Science Museum Group Collection |url=https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/ap19036/dancer-john-benjamin |access-date=2024-05-17 |website=collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk |language=en}}
References
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External articles and references
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140703035801/http://www.mosi.org.uk/media/33871140/john%20benjamin%20dancer.pdf John Benjamin Dancer, Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester]
- [http://www.manchestermicroscopical.org.uk/danchom.html John Benjamin Dancer] Manchester Microscopical & Natural History Society.
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Category:British scientific instrument makers
Category:People associated with electricity
Category:Businesspeople from Liverpool
Category:19th-century English businesspeople
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