Conrady himself employed this form of the name until World War I. Conrady knew less about his maternal ancestors, though he mentions that his maternal grandfather had been a distiller by the name of Scriverius, and that his mother (Mathilde) had been educated in his paternal grandfather's school, and then sent to a finishing school in the upper Rhine region for a year.
In 1886, his father persuaded him to leave the university and sent him to England to act as his agent with Stanfield, Brown and Co., learning how to set up button-sewing machines so that he might then return to Germany and supervise their erection there.
Business ventures of his own in the manufacture of electrical equipment and model-making did not succeed, but by way of them in the 1890s he found his ultimate calling in the study of microscope and telescope optics, at first as a diversion and hobby.
During this period he finally abandoned his business ventures and went to work for Messrs. W. Watson and Son as a scientific adviser and lens designer.
[3] Perhaps as a result of this career-change and new-found domestic happiness, his bibliographic output increased dramatically, and by 1910 he had published thirteen papers on optics, astronomy, and spectroscopy.
"[5] The success of this work led to his appointment in 1917 to the principal teaching post of the newly founded Technical Optics Department at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London, a position he occupied until 1931.
Many important optical designers of the 20th century—most notably his son-in-law, Rudolf Kingslake, as well as his eldest daughter, Hilda Conrady Kingslake—received his instruction and utilized his methods.
But the disruptions of life in London during World War II, along with his own ill health, prevented Conrady from finishing the work.