WHEATSTONE, Sir Charles

b. 6 February 1802; d. 19 October 1875

Wheatstone started his working life as a musical instrument maker an was the inventor of the concertina. In his early thirties he became Professor of Experimental Philosophy at Kings College, London, and in 1836 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was a physicist who is remembered for his studies in acoustics (including the invention of the concertina) and for his contribution to the invention of telegraphy. 

His particular contribution to photography was in his development of stereoscopy; in 1838 he described the theory of stereoscopic vision and his invention of the stereoscope to the Royal Society.

His mirror stereoscopic viewer required that both pictures in the pair be reversed laterally. The advantage of the arrangement was that one could cope with large pictures, which is why the principle is still in use today when viewing Xray stereoscopic pictures.

Wheatstone was a member of the Photographic Society and served on its Council.

© Robert Leggat, 1999.