Maddox, Richard Leach (1816-1902), English physician and amateur photographer, recognized today as the inventor of the first practicable gelatin silver halide emulsion. Maddox suffered from ill health in his early years and moved abroad. He practised medicine for a time in Constantinople, and during the 1870s in Corsica and Italy, before eventually returning to England. For most of this period he was a keen photographer, winning medals for his photomicrographs. He stayed in touch with developments through his friend John Trail Taylor, editor of the British Journal of Photography (BJP).
Maddox was concerned about the health risks of the collodion process (which included ether and cyanide) and familiar with the numerous unsuccessful attempts that had been made to find a dry substitute for collodion to carry sensitive silver salts. In an 1871 article in the BJP he published details of a gelatin bromide emulsion he had devised that gave promising results. Others improved the idea, and within ten years gelatin bromide dry plates were being mass produced and a giant new industry was established. Dry emulsions revolutionized photography, being more convenient to use and more sensitive than wet collodion plates. The shorter exposures they permitted led to the introduction of hand cameras; and they made roll-film possible. Modern sensitized materials continue to be based on gelatin silver halide emulsions.
Like his predecessor Scott Archer, Maddox refused to patent his discovery, and although the Royal Photographic Society awarded him the Progress Medal, its highest honour, he died in poverty.
— Graham Saxby/John P. Ward
