Cary-type compound microscope
Date: circa 1830
Inventory Number: 2002-1-0063
Classification: Microscope
Subject:
Maker: William Cary (c. 1759 - 1825)
Cultural Region:
Place of Origin:
Dimensions:
microscope: 21 × 12.9 × 11.5 cm (8 1/4 × 5 1/16 × 4 1/2 in.)
case: 3.4 × 12.9 × 11.5 cm (1 5/16 × 5 1/16 × 4 1/2 in.)
Accessories: Four objectives; high power simple magnifier; brass forceps; ivory handled dissecting needle; ivory handled knife; tortoise-shell enclosed knife; stage-mounted brass and blued steel forceps with steel pin at opposite end; articulated bull's eye condenser; live box to fit in stage; flat case.
Description:
Mahogany box with liftout tray lined with dark teal velvet. Brass rectangular pillar screws in brass socket on the case lid. Focus by use of rackwork on the pillar to move stage up and down. Brass stage has spring for slides and will take round live box / glass stage. The live box is also designed for aquatic samples. There are holes to insert stage forceps or a bull's eye condenser. Substage mirror is missing.
Accessories included in the box are 4 objectives; high power simple magnifier; brass forceps; ivory handled dissecting needle; ivory handled knife; tortoise-shell enclosed knife; stage-mounted brass and blued steel forceps with steel pin at opposite end; articulated bull's eye condenser; and live box to fit in stage.
The low-power objectives and a high-power special lens may form a simple microscope. This is not suited as aquatic microscope as it is mounted in the center of the case and therefore cannot look over its edge as some Cary-types could.
Accessories included in the box are 4 objectives; high power simple magnifier; brass forceps; ivory handled dissecting needle; ivory handled knife; tortoise-shell enclosed knife; stage-mounted brass and blued steel forceps with steel pin at opposite end; articulated bull's eye condenser; and live box to fit in stage.
The low-power objectives and a high-power special lens may form a simple microscope. This is not suited as aquatic microscope as it is mounted in the center of the case and therefore cannot look over its edge as some Cary-types could.
Signedon rackwork: Cary, LONDON
FunctionThis type of portable microscope was very convenient to take into the field and satisfied the great wave of interest in natural history in the early 19th century. Charles Darwin owned a similar Cary-type microscope in his younger days.
Primary SourcesCharles Gould, The Companion to the Microscope....And a Description of C. Gould's Improved Pocket Compound Microscope, Which has all the Uses of the Single, Compound, and Opaque Microscopes (London: Sold by W. Cary, 181 Strand, 1827).
ProvenanceGift of Max and Florence Brodsky Family, 2002.