A group of three men in a relaxed pose; John Benjamin Dancer, William Crawford Williamson and Edward William Binney. Dancer was a celebrated Manchester optician, photographer and instrument maker; an inventor of outstanding ability. He pioneered the making of microphotographs mounted on slides for microscope viewing. Edward William Binney made his fortune from patenting the manufacture of paraffin oil, was a distinguished scientist from Manchester and a geologist (palaeobotany) of repute. Williamson (born 1816) was a doctor and geologist. Source: One hundred and fifty years of palaeobotany at Manchester University Geological Society, London, Special Publications. In 1859 all three were founding members of the Physical and Mathematic Section of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society (source Memoirs and proceedings of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society, 1887-1888) and senior members of its Microscopical Section.

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A group of three men in a relaxed pose; John Benjamin Dancer, William Crawford Williamson and Edward William Binney. Dancer was a celebrated Manchester optician, photographer and instrument maker; an inventor of outstanding ability. He pioneered the making of microphotographs mounted on slides for microscope viewing. Edward William Binney made his fortune from patenting the manufacture of paraffin oil, was a distinguished scientist from Manchester and a geologist (palaeobotany) of repute. Williamson (born 1816) was a doctor and geologist. Source: One hundred and fifty years of palaeobotany at Manchester University Geological Society, London, Special Publications. In 1859 all three were founding members of the Physical and Mathematic Section of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society (source Memoirs and proceedings of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society, 1887-1888) and senior members of its Microscopical Section.