Meticulously crafted in Paris, France, the miniature Bertrand drum microscope is accompanied by a beautiful mahogany box and dates back to about 1841. The model featured below was redrawn from photographs of the original microscope, which is part of the Billings microscope collection at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC.

The mahogany storage box is an integral part of the microscope and is designed to serve as a base that anchors the barrel-shaped instrument. Comprised of individual units that are detachable, the brass monocular microscope is surprisingly compact -- the storage box measures only 2-1/2 x 3-7/8 x 1-5/8 inches. Fine focus is achieved by sliding the body tube closer to or farther away from the specimen. The mechanism for fine adjustment is composed of a steel spring clamp positioned above the cylinder assembly and is manipulated by turning a milled-head screw. Focusing is further enhanced by a choice of three interchangeable objectives of varying magnification. The specimen stage of the compound monocular microscope is composed a single fixed plate. Although fitted with a 7/16-inch adjustable mirror, uniform illumination can only be minimally achieved because the instrument lacks a substage condenser.

BACK TO NINETEENTH CENTURY MICROSCOPES

Questions or comments? Send us an email.

© 1998-2022 by Michael W. Davidson and The Florida State University. All Rights Reserved. No images, graphics, scripts, or applets may be reproduced or used in any manner without permission from the copyright holders. Use of this website means you agree to all of the Legal Terms and Conditions set forth by the owners.

This website is maintained by our
Graphics & Web Programming Team
in collaboration with Optical Microscopy at the
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.

Last modification: Friday, Nov 13, 2015 at 02:18 PM

Access Count Since May 25, 2001: 19763

For more information on microscope manufacturers,
use the buttons below to navigate to their websites: