The very basic design of this brass, rubber, and iron compound microscope produced by skilled optician Edmund Hartnack around 1880 omits both a substage condenser and light-gathering mirror. The demonstration instrument can be used vertically or handheld horizontally as a solar microscope in medical classrooms.

A vulcanite rubber base doubles as the stage for this late nineteenth century instrument. Paired stage clips, which are painted to simulate brass, ensure the security of a mounted specimen when the instrument is held towards sunlight or an artificial light source. Below the stage is a disc containing five apertures that can partially control specimen illumination and resolution. The monocular instrument has no limbs, arms, or focus mechanisms and the distance between the long, low-powered objective and the stage plate is fixed. Magnification and coarse focus of the instrument may be adjusted by sliding its brass body tubes.

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 01:19 PM

Access Count Since March 12, 2003: 18323

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