Joseph Gutteridge

Joseph Gutteridge (23 March 1816 – 4 November 1899) was an English silk weaver and naturalist.[1]

Certificate certifying award of a bronze medal to Joseph Gutteridge as an amateur manufacturer of microscopes.

Gutteridge became an atheist after attending debates at the Coventry Mutual Improvement Society, and became an Owenite socialist.[1] After participating in the strike of 1860-61 in the aftermath of the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty, he acquired "firm Liberal views".[1] Despite being ruined by the Treaty, he was "dogmatically committed to free trade as the poor man's best hope".[2]

In 1893 his autobiography Lights and Shadows in the Life of an Artisan was published, which was drawn from his diary. It "remains an impressive source for the history of the silk industry, working-class life, and urban development during the industrial revolution".[1] William Ewart Gladstone received a copy and it gained favourable reviews. Gutteridge received a gift from the Royal Bounty Fund and an annuity from friends.[1]

Work
Examples of Joseph Gutteridge's work
  • A stand microscope created by Joseph Gutteridge, a weaver from Coventry. The microscope allows coarse and fine adjustments, and its height is adjustable by a set screw. It consists of two objectives each with a screw on cap and a slidecarrier that is moveable laterally. The mirror also has a cap. It has a bench magnifier, lens moveable through 360° and has a base weighted with lead.
    A stand microscope
  • A stand microscope created by Joseph Gutteridge, a weaver from Coventry. The microscope allows coarse and fine adjustments, and its height is adjustable by a set screw. It consists of two objectives each with a screw on cap and a slidecarrier that is moveable laterally. The mirror also has a cap. It has a bench magnifier, lens moveable through 360° and has a base weighted with lead. It is placed in a Mahogany box containing seventeen six-compartment trays of slides.
    A stand microscope with case

Notes
  1. V. E. Chancellor, ‘Gutteridge, Joseph (1816–1899)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 18 April 2010.
  2. E. F. Biagini, Liberty, Retrenchment and Reform. Popular Liberalism in the Age of Gladstone, 1860-1880 (Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 100.

Further reading
  • V. E. Chancellor (ed.), Master and Artisan in Victorian England (1969)
  • Joseph Gutteridge, Lights and Shadows in the Life of an Artisan (1893).
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