Joseph Towne
Encyclopedia
Joseph Towne was a British
moulage
ur, sculptor
, and stereoscopist
. He is best known for the creation of anatomical models made of wax
, many of which still survive today and are on display in the Guy's Hospital
medical school museum.
Joseph Towne was born in Royston
, a town in Hertfordshire
, England. His father was a preacher at the local chapel, and gave Sunday-school lessons in a hall at the back of Towne's Yard. The Townes had many children, but this was a time of epidemics of smallpox
, typhus
and Asiatic cholera
. Joseph was thus the youngest of five surviving children. His father played the organ in church, and encouraged the children to play music. Joseph learned to play the violin, and also experimented with making plaster-casts of his fingers and filling them with wax. Eventually, Joseph asked his father whether he could be apprenticed to a local artist. The father agreed, and the boy spent two years as an assistant sculptor.
When he was seventeen, Joseph Towne began work on a major project. It was the construction of a wax skeleton, even though he had never seen a real one. Working from books, he laboured on for two years before it was complete. Then, he went to Cambridge, where he tried to donate it to the medical-science museum. He was told "It is very artistic".
Towne wanted to be accurate rather than artistic, and asked what was wrong with it, so that he could put it right - but nobody could tell him. He had been informed that there was a Society of Arts competition in London, so he decided to go to London. In London, he visited doctors who examined it, but could not tell him whether it was correct or wrong. The time arrived when somebody advised him to ask Astley Cooper
. In April 1825, Towne met the famous surgeon, who wrote out a note for him:
His skeleton had not won the prize. It took second place. In the following year, a wax sculpture of a head dissection made for Hilton won the first prize.
The atmosphere at Guy's Hospital was poisonous with suspicion. Astley Cooper knew that it takes only one bad member of staff to wreck the entire hospital. He was therefore reluctant to hire anybody - but he trusted his unqualified bookkeeper Benjamin Harrison the Elder. The talents of Hodgkin caught the eye of the venerable Benjamin Harrison the Elder, who brought him down from Edinburgh to join the staff of Guy's. Astley Cooper seems to have intended to create a collection of wax medical models to rival the Florentine collection, because in 1825 he accepted Towne.
Towne worked for the anatomist Dr. Hilton and for Addison. Addison taught materia medica, and had need for wax moulages of diseases. Smallpox is contagious, so the students would be shown wax models rather than the real thing. Towne made eight moulages of variola, the smallpox - six days before eruption, five days, four days, three days, two days, the day before, the day of eruption and two days after. He also made three moulages of vaccinia, the cowpox.
Towne had an assistant and an Italian model known as Francis - who was most probably Francesco. In the manner of a dental assistant, Towne's helper would mix up portions of plaster-of-paris for Towne to apply to the limb of Francis.
Later, he would fit end-caps as needed and fill the mold with wax. Finally, the wax molding would be painted with colored wax.
Towne was paid a huge retainer, as well as a large sum for each moulage. Consequently, he remained loyal to Guy's hospital. Additional work involved the making of a marble bust of Cooper - who was now Sir Astley Cooper - and of other members of staff.
In 1852, he made "The magnificent bust by Towne" that was mentioned by Sir Samuel Wilks
and Dr. Daldy in their "Collected Works of Thomas Addison".
In 1859, the medical school at Guy's fell on hard times.It was suggested that the hospital museum should be closed to save money. That would automatically have spelled the end of Towne's career. Fortunately, the museum with its wax models continued - but in reduced circumstances. Ever loyal, Towne refused to make models for other British hospitals. His fame had spread, however, so that he made about two hundred additional moulages for faraway places such as India and the United States.
Professor Charles Wheatstone
had invented stereoscopy
, and revealed it to the world in 1838. There was no serious prior art. Victorians immediately took to the novelty, and Towne was no exception. As one might expect, he assembled a collection of 3D images of sculptures to study. He also studied the work of Wheatstone and of Sir David Brewster
.
In 1862, Towne published the results of his stereoscopic researches together with a reply to the man who was now Sir Charles Wheatstone. But ever loyal to Guy's, he published in Guy's Hospital Reports.
The articles, in two parts, provide a fascinating insight into the mind of Joseph Towne. For example, he argues that if one eye sees yellow and the other sees blue, the mind should see green. This is wrong. The yellow and blue that he speaks of are pigments. It is now known that when yellow and blue light are mixed, the outcome is white. But what if yellow enters the mind via one eye, and blue via the other? This is uncharted territory. Similarly, Towne argues that one can see in three dimensions with only one eye. This is because one can sense the tension in the eye-muscles as one focuses close. However, it is not true shape-perception as defined by Wheatstone.
Towne's adjustive Stereoscope is no more than a direct-viewing aid with a septum
and pinhole oculars. However, it does help anybody who is attempting direct-viewing because the septum cuts out distraction whilst the pinholes extend the depth-of-field.
Over the course of his career, Towne made just over a thousand moulages for Guy's hospital, eight hundred under the direction of Addison including cases of skin disease, and anatomical preparations from dissections made by John Hilton. He also made an equestrian statue of the Duke of Kent for Buckingham Palace.
He was buried in West Norwood Cemetery
, where his monument has been destroyed.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
moulage
Moulage
Moulage is the art of applying mock injuries for the purpose of training Emergency Response Teams and other medical and military personnel...
ur, sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, and stereoscopist
Stereoscopy
Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
. He is best known for the creation of anatomical models made of wax
Wax
thumb|right|[[Cetyl palmitate]], a typical wax ester.Wax refers to a class of chemical compounds that are plastic near ambient temperatures. Characteristically, they melt above 45 °C to give a low viscosity liquid. Waxes are insoluble in water but soluble in organic, nonpolar solvents...
, many of which still survive today and are on display in the Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital is a large NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in south east London, England. It is administratively a part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. It is a large teaching hospital and is home to the King's College London School of Medicine...
medical school museum.
Joseph Towne was born in Royston
Royston, Hertfordshire
Royston is a town and civil parish in the District of North Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England.It is situated on the Greenwich Meridian, which brushes the towns western boundary, and at the northernmost apex of the county on the same latitude of towns such as Milton Keynes and...
, a town in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, England. His father was a preacher at the local chapel, and gave Sunday-school lessons in a hall at the back of Towne's Yard. The Townes had many children, but this was a time of epidemics of smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
, typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
and Asiatic cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
. Joseph was thus the youngest of five surviving children. His father played the organ in church, and encouraged the children to play music. Joseph learned to play the violin, and also experimented with making plaster-casts of his fingers and filling them with wax. Eventually, Joseph asked his father whether he could be apprenticed to a local artist. The father agreed, and the boy spent two years as an assistant sculptor.
When he was seventeen, Joseph Towne began work on a major project. It was the construction of a wax skeleton, even though he had never seen a real one. Working from books, he laboured on for two years before it was complete. Then, he went to Cambridge, where he tried to donate it to the medical-science museum. He was told "It is very artistic".
Towne wanted to be accurate rather than artistic, and asked what was wrong with it, so that he could put it right - but nobody could tell him. He had been informed that there was a Society of Arts competition in London, so he decided to go to London. In London, he visited doctors who examined it, but could not tell him whether it was correct or wrong. The time arrived when somebody advised him to ask Astley Cooper
Astley Cooper
Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet was an English surgeon and anatomist, who made historical contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology and surgery of hernia.-Life:Cooper was born at Brooke Hall in Brooke, Norfolk...
. In April 1825, Towne met the famous surgeon, who wrote out a note for him:
His skeleton had not won the prize. It took second place. In the following year, a wax sculpture of a head dissection made for Hilton won the first prize.
The atmosphere at Guy's Hospital was poisonous with suspicion. Astley Cooper knew that it takes only one bad member of staff to wreck the entire hospital. He was therefore reluctant to hire anybody - but he trusted his unqualified bookkeeper Benjamin Harrison the Elder. The talents of Hodgkin caught the eye of the venerable Benjamin Harrison the Elder, who brought him down from Edinburgh to join the staff of Guy's. Astley Cooper seems to have intended to create a collection of wax medical models to rival the Florentine collection, because in 1825 he accepted Towne.
Towne worked for the anatomist Dr. Hilton and for Addison. Addison taught materia medica, and had need for wax moulages of diseases. Smallpox is contagious, so the students would be shown wax models rather than the real thing. Towne made eight moulages of variola, the smallpox - six days before eruption, five days, four days, three days, two days, the day before, the day of eruption and two days after. He also made three moulages of vaccinia, the cowpox.
Towne had an assistant and an Italian model known as Francis - who was most probably Francesco. In the manner of a dental assistant, Towne's helper would mix up portions of plaster-of-paris for Towne to apply to the limb of Francis.
Later, he would fit end-caps as needed and fill the mold with wax. Finally, the wax molding would be painted with colored wax.
Towne was paid a huge retainer, as well as a large sum for each moulage. Consequently, he remained loyal to Guy's hospital. Additional work involved the making of a marble bust of Cooper - who was now Sir Astley Cooper - and of other members of staff.
In 1852, he made "The magnificent bust by Towne" that was mentioned by Sir Samuel Wilks
Samuel Wilks
Sir Samuel Wilks, 1st Baronet , was a British physician and biographer.-Early life:Samuel Wilks was born on 2 June 1824 in Camberwell, London, the second son of Joseph Barber Wilks, a cashier at the East India House...
and Dr. Daldy in their "Collected Works of Thomas Addison".
In 1859, the medical school at Guy's fell on hard times.It was suggested that the hospital museum should be closed to save money. That would automatically have spelled the end of Towne's career. Fortunately, the museum with its wax models continued - but in reduced circumstances. Ever loyal, Towne refused to make models for other British hospitals. His fame had spread, however, so that he made about two hundred additional moulages for faraway places such as India and the United States.
Professor Charles Wheatstone
Charles Wheatstone
Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS , was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope , and the Playfair cipher...
had invented stereoscopy
Stereoscopy
Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
, and revealed it to the world in 1838. There was no serious prior art. Victorians immediately took to the novelty, and Towne was no exception. As one might expect, he assembled a collection of 3D images of sculptures to study. He also studied the work of Wheatstone and of Sir David Brewster
David Brewster
Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA FSSA MICE was a Scottish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, writer and university principal.-Early life:...
.
In 1862, Towne published the results of his stereoscopic researches together with a reply to the man who was now Sir Charles Wheatstone. But ever loyal to Guy's, he published in Guy's Hospital Reports.
The articles, in two parts, provide a fascinating insight into the mind of Joseph Towne. For example, he argues that if one eye sees yellow and the other sees blue, the mind should see green. This is wrong. The yellow and blue that he speaks of are pigments. It is now known that when yellow and blue light are mixed, the outcome is white. But what if yellow enters the mind via one eye, and blue via the other? This is uncharted territory. Similarly, Towne argues that one can see in three dimensions with only one eye. This is because one can sense the tension in the eye-muscles as one focuses close. However, it is not true shape-perception as defined by Wheatstone.
Towne's adjustive Stereoscope is no more than a direct-viewing aid with a septum
Septum
In anatomy, a septum is a wall, dividing a cavity or structure into smaller ones.-In human anatomy:...
and pinhole oculars. However, it does help anybody who is attempting direct-viewing because the septum cuts out distraction whilst the pinholes extend the depth-of-field.
Over the course of his career, Towne made just over a thousand moulages for Guy's hospital, eight hundred under the direction of Addison including cases of skin disease, and anatomical preparations from dissections made by John Hilton. He also made an equestrian statue of the Duke of Kent for Buckingham Palace.
He was buried in West Norwood Cemetery
West Norwood Cemetery
West Norwood Cemetery is a cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery.One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries of London, and is a site of major historical, architectural and...
, where his monument has been destroyed.
