Thomas Bolton (microscopist)

Thomas Bolton (1831–1887) was an English businessman, zoologist, and microscopist, who specialised in collecting and supplying specimens, especially living rotifers and other infusoria, to other microscopists by post, from his business in Birmingham, England. He discovered and described several putative new species, although his descriptions are not now recognised under the rules of formal zoological taxonomy. A number of leading contemporary scientists acknowledged his work and some named species after him. His scientific contributions were also recognised by the award of a civil list pension, at the behest of leading scientists.

Early life

Bolton was born in 1831 at Kinver, South Staffordshire, and baptised at St. Peter's Church, Kinver, on 7 September that year. He was the son of another Thomas Bolton (1796–1851), an iron master and partner in the firm of Lee and Bolton, who owned Hyde Iron Works, and of Thomas' wife Elizabeth, née Perry. He was educated at Kinver Grammar School, and then at King's College, London. He passed the 1851 matriculation examination to enter London University, gaining honours in mathematics and natural philosophy, with a view to studying as an engineer. However, the death of his father in October 1851 necessitated his return to Kinver and entry into the business. He married Julia Charlotte (née Turner) on 15 August 1860 at St. Mary, Stoke Newington, Hackney, London. Bolton was active in local community work, especially in regard to education, He was instrumental in the establishment of the area's first board school, set up and managed evening classes, and became governor of Kinver Grammar School (a role he maintained until his death). He also assisted the local Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society, and served as churchwarden. In 1867 he was an exam board secretary for the Society of Arts. At that time and into the mid 1870s he gave his address as Hyde House, Kinver, and wrote about collecting specimens in "Hyde Pool". In August 1868, Bolton and his business partners Thomas Yate Lee and John Francis Lee, trading as Lee and Bolton, were declared bankrupt. The iron works taken over, under the same business name, by H. O. Firmstone of Crookhay Ironworks, West Bromwich, by whom Bolton was employed as works manager. In around 1878, the business again collapsed, and Bolton, having already lost his fortune and his personal property, found himself unemployed.

Zoological career In 1878, following his financial losses, Bolton set up business as the "Microscopist's and Naturalists' Studio" at 17, Ann Street, Birmingham. A piece in The Midland Naturalist later that year said:

Mr. Thos. Bolton, Naturalist, 17, Ann Street, Birmingham, announces that for a subscription of £1 1s. per half-year, paid in advance, he will supply a tube of living specimens every week. The specimens will include all varieties of which he may obtain a sufficient supply, and will be forwarded us early as possible in twenty-six consecutive weeks, To some subscribers he has agreed to forward the twenty-six tubes during twelve months, or one per fortnight, and to others (science teachers) more rapidly as they may require them for class work or exhibition. To such subscribers he also will from time to time post any notices or sketches that he may print of the various objects he is distributing. Some time around the turn of 1880–1881, the business moved nearby, to 57, Newhall Street, Birmingham. A note in The Northern Microscopist described his premises thus:

In jars, aquaria, wine glasses, bottles, &c., at 57, Newhall, Birmingham, may be found Lophopus crystallinus, Cristatella mucedo, Plumatella repens, Stephanocerus Eichhornii, and many others, ready to be sent away at a moment's notice. As well as amateur naturalists, he supplied schools, colleges and museums. Thanks to an efficient postal service he was able to supply clients as far away as Paris and, later, the United States The former included Jules Pelletan, editor of the Journal de Micrographie.

Along with the specimens, he provided a "flyleaf"—a sheet of instructions on preparing the specimens and notes on key features to observe. Some of these he wrote himself and some he extracted from published articles. They included illustrations commissioned, from 1879 to 1882, from H. Edward Forrest, or from William Saville-Kent. The flyleaves—including illustrations and hand-written texts—were initially reproduced using autographic printing, a process which Bolton also promoted from his business premises on behalf of its inventor, Alfred Pumphrey, a Birmingham photographer, although some of the flyleaves were also typeset and printed in a more traditional manner. In addition to his business, Bolton corresponded with and supplied specimens to scientists including Francis Alfred Bedwell, Philip Henry Gosse, Charles Thomas Hudson, Ray Lankester and Saville-Kent. In 1879 Lankester wrote a glowing recommendation of "Mr. Bolton's Agency for the Supply of Microscopic Organisms" in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, of which he was editor. Bolton replied by way of a letter in Nature, modestly refuting some of the discoveries which Lankester incorrectly attributed to him. Bolton collected and sometimes described the type specimens of several species then thought new to science, although at least some of these have since been described as junior synonyms of already-known species. These included Floscularia mutabilis, but his description of the species, in a self-published flyleaf, was later declared invalid and attributed, with the same name, to Hudson, who had subsequently published a more formal description. Similarly, Hudson attributed Conochilus dossuarius and Pompholyx sulcata to Bolton, who discovered them, but subsequent authorities have attributed them to Hudson. He also mentions "Stephanops bifurcus Bolton", in a list of Stephanops species; and credits Bolton with the discovery (but not description or naming) of Notommata spicata and Taphrocampa saundersiae. Hudson further noted:

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