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 large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ha ...

– 20 April 1833,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

)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 used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...

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 in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

. They manufactured many instruments and devices that use

lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which 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 or a temperature gradient (the degree of hotness or coldness of an object). A thermometer has two important elements: (1) a temperature sensor (e.g. the bulb of a mercury-in-glass thermometer ...

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 invisib ...

, sympiesometers,

spectacles Glasses, also known as eyeglasses or spectacles, are vision eyewear, with lenses (clear or tinted) mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms (known as temples o ...

, and Claude glasses. 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 that is designed to limit the effects of chromatic and spherical aberration. Achromatic lenses are corrected to bring two wavelengths (typically red and blue) into focus on the same plane. The most comm ...

es, even supplying Peter Dollond, a renowned developer of the lenses. He made instruments for various opticians including

John Benjamin Dancer John Benjamin Dancer (8 October 1812 – 24 November 1887) was a British scientific instrument maker and inventor of microphotography. He also pioneered stereography. Life By 1835, he controlled his father's instrument making business in Li ...

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 Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA Scot FSSA MICE (11 December 178110 February 1868) was a British scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics ...

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 regular symmetrical pattern when v ...

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, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

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 (, also fantasmagorie, 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, onto walls, smoke, or sem ...

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 Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...

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,

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...

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

zoological Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...

subjects, followed by

astronomical Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxi ...

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 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