Background
Thomas Wedgwood was born on May 14, 1771, in Etruria, Staffordshire, now part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in the United Kingdom.
Thomas Wedgwood was born on May 14, 1771, in Etruria, Staffordshire, now part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in the United Kingdom.
Thomas Wedgwood attended Edinburgh University from 1786 to 1788.
Thomas Wedgwood experimented with thermometers and light, heat, and silver nitrate (1790 to 1792). By 1800 he was working with colored glasses and the microscope.
In June 1802 Thomas Wedgwood announced to the public that he had invented a process of developing an outline of images on white paper or white leather with nitrate of silver. This account was recorded by Sir Humphry Davy in the Journals of the Royal Institution.
Thomas Wedgwood also discovered the varying effects of color on development - red having the least action, blue and violet the most. At this same time, he discovered the physical law that solid bodies have the same temperature at the point of incandescence. (Some historians say this was his father's discovery.)
During his experiments, Thomas Wedgwood was influenced by the Reverend J. B. Reade, who, some forty years later, experimented with gallic acid by applying tannin solution to paper. Wedgwood's process was similar to what is commonly called a photogram. Unfortunately, he was never able to make the image permanent.
Thomas Wedgwood died in the county of Dorset at the age of 34.
Quotes from others about the person
Sometimes referred to as "the first photographer," Wedgwood was "the first person who conceived and put in practice the idea of using the agency of light to obtain a representation of an object," according to his biographer, R. B. Litchfield.
Thomas Wedgwood never married and had no children. His biographer notes that "neither his extant letters nor family tradition tells us of his caring for any woman outside the circle of his relations".