Henry Clifton Sorby ( 1826 - 1908 )

Birth: Woodbourne, Atterckiffe near Sheffield, Yorkshire, England (10 May 1826) Death: Sheffield (09 March 1908) Buried: Eccleshall churchyard, his gravestone two British granites on a sandstone plinth Research Field: Microscopy Eduction: Sheffield Collegiate School until age 15, then at home with a private tutor Career: Built himself a private laboratory following his father's death in 1847 at his home, Broomfield, Beech Hill Road, Broomhill, and pioneered microscopical petrography (shaving rock sample to 1000th of an inch, shine light through it and look at patterns under high magnification under normal and polarised light) . Interested in minute fluid cavities in mineral crystals, and how these could show ways in wwhich rocks themselves had been formed.