Conrad Beck
Conrad Beck, C.B.E. (1864-1944), of R. and J. Beck
1864 January: Born in Stoke Newington, son of Joseph Beck and Emma Elizabeth Beck.
1879 Apprenticed to his father at 31 Cornhill to learn the trade of optician.[1]
1886 Gained his Freedom of the City having completed his 7 year apprenticeship
1891 A Manufacturing Optician and Employer, living at 233 Albion Road , Stoke Newington, with his father and sister and brother, [2]
1891 After the death of his father, he and his mother continued the business.
1895 Married Annie Collings in Luton[3]
1896 Gained the first of many patents, this one relating to film changing photographic cameras.
Later patents dealt with a multitude of inventions including cameras, microscopes, telescopes, optical lanterns, rangefinders, etc; collaborators included his brother Horace, his son Conrad, his uncle William, and Howard Grubb, amongst others.
1897 registered for copyright some photographs of the Queen's Jubilee Procession, specifically the ceremony at St Paul's.[4]
1901 Conrad Beck 37, a manufacturing optician, employer, lived in Kensington with Annie Beck 33, Conrad Beck 4, Christine Beck 1[5]
1903 Published "Photographic Lenses - A Simple Treatise" with Herbert Andrews; by 1923 this volume was in its 7th edition.
1904 Contributed to a meeting discussing a proposal to hold an Optical Convention, arguing the need for broadening the understanding of the general public about the optical trade beyond just the optician's craft (which was stagnating) to include other parts of the optical industry where Britain held a leading position; the convention would help build links between the scientific community and "practical men".[6]
1907 Presented a paper to the Royal Photographic Society on photographic optics; Messrs. Beck had been developing a lens correction method by trial-and-error, although others had taken a more theoretical approach[7]
1907 Presented a series of Cantor Lectures at the Society of Arts on "The theory of the microscope"[8]. Beck was a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society.
1908 Death of his mother[9]
1911 Conrad Beck 47, manufacturing optician, lived in South Kensington with Annie Beck 43, Christine Beck 11[10]
1913 Introduced the first "really successful" binocular microscope[11]
1918 President, British Optical Instrument Manufacturers' Association; Chairman and Managing Director, Messrs. R. and J. Beck, Limited, was awarded the C.B.E.[12]
1918 Elected vice-chairman of the newly formed British Scientific Instrument Research Association.[13]
1921 Published "The Microscope, A simple handbook."
1922 on the winding up of the Beck Cinematograph Manufacturing Co, Conrad Beck was put in the chair of the meeting of unsecured creditors owed less than £100[14]
1923 Demonstrated a new illuminator for opaque objects under the microscope at the Conversazione of the Royal Society[15]
1923 Published "The Microscope, Part II."
1927 His only daughter, Christine, became engaged.
1927 Hadfields Ltd seem to have prepared designs for "the Conrad Beck" microscope[16]
1930 Published 3rd edition of "The Microscope"
1933 Elected President of the Royal Microscopical Society[17]
1933 Marriage of his only son, Conrad Joseph Beck[18]
1936 Elected Vice-President of the Royal Microscopical Society[19]
1938 Published a new edition of "The Microscope: Theory and Practice"
1939 Conrad Beck 75, managing director R. and J. Beck, lived in Kensington with Annie Beck 72[20]
1944 Died in Shaftesbury, Dorset
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ City of London, Admission of Freemen
- ↑ 1891 Census
- ↑ BMD
- ↑ National Archives
- ↑ 1901 census
- ↑ The Times Apr. 28, 1904
- ↑ The Times Mar. 16, 1907
- ↑ The Times Nov. 23, 1907
- ↑ The Annual monitor for 1909, being an Obituary of members of the Society of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland, from October 1, 1907, to September 30, 1908
- ↑ 1911 census
- ↑ The Evolution of the Microscope, page 278, by S. Bradbury, 2014
- ↑ London Gazette 4 Jun 1918
- ↑ The Times Nov. 25, 1918
- ↑ The Times Nov. 6, 1922
- ↑ The Times May 17, 1923
- ↑ National Archives
- ↑ The Times Jan. 23, 1933
- ↑ The Times May 9, 1933
- ↑ The Times Jan. 28, 1936
- ↑ 1939 register