Miles Ainscough Seed

Background

Miles Ainscough was born on February 24, 1843 in Preston, England, the son of Richard and Ann (Ainscough) Seed.

Education

Miles Ainscough Seed received a public school education in England, and became vitally interested in photography, then in its infancy. He studied the sciences and continued to do research in physics, astronomy, and chemistry, and to experiment particularly with different processes for making and developing photographic plates.

Career

Seed emigrated to the United States in 1865 and settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where he obtained a position in the photographic gallery of John Scholton. He soon became chief operator and manager and continued in this work for a number of years, devoting his spare time to further experiments at his home in an effort to simplify the process that he had developed for producing photographic negatives.

After several years of persistent effort he perfected a process for the manufacture of a photographic dry plate which appeared so promising a contribution to photography that, with the financial help of friends, he formed the M. A. Seed Dry Plate Company in St. Louis in 1882 and began to manufacture his new product. While the dry plate was a vast improvement over the earlier wet plate, it was so revolutionary a step that for a number of years after he began to manufacture the product Seed found it necessary to travel all over the United States to demonstrate its possibilities and methods of use in order to build up a market.

He remained in close touch with his plant and personally superintended the processing of the plates. As a result, a larger market was opened up to the product of Seed's manufactory and the M. A. Seed Dry Plate Company expanded at a rapid rate. In 1902 he sold the business as well as his formulae to the Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York, for the succeeding five years being employed as special advisor to that company.

In 1907 he retired and a few years later settled in Pelham, New York, where he lived until his death.

Achievements

• Miles Ainscough Seed was the founder of M. A. Seed Dry Plate Company and was the first in the market who perfected a process for the manufacture of a photographic dry plate. In the course of ten years he did he manufacture dry plates, produced celluloid films for negatives, and introduced positive celluloid films, lantern slides, and double-coated non-inhalation plates. His dry plate was the first one sensitive enough to be used for X-ray purposes and for astronomical pictures.

Religion

Seed was also a learned student of the Bible.

Interests

• Seed was very fond of flowers and gardening, and his homes both in St. Louis and Pelham possessed beautiful gardens in which he cultivated extensive varieties of flowers, ferns, palms, cacti, and water plants.

Connections

Miles Ainscough Seed was married in 1872 to Martha Krause of St. Louis, and after her death he was married in 1881 to her sister, Lydia. He was survived by his widow and nine children, two being children of his first wife.

Father:

Richard Seed

Mother:

Ann (Ainscough) Seed

Spouse:

Lydia Krause

Spouse:

Martha Krause

References

• Bulletin of Photography, Vol. 19: July 5 to December 27, 1916 (Classic Reprint)