Microscope
name: label: maker
content: American Optical Company
notes: label: Description
content: The AO-Baker Interference microscope is a compound binocular with coarse and fine focus, circular mechanical stage, sub-stage mirror, and U-shaped base. The inscription on the front of this example reads “AO / Spencer.” That underneath the base reads “B-35-83 Instrument Division / American Optical Co. / Buffalo 15, N.Y. MADE IN USA / U.S. Pat. / 2,474,644 / DES 148,123 / OR 148,124.” The 373366 serial number on the back of the base indicates a date of around 1955.
label: Description
content: The American Optical Company introduced the AO-Baker interference microscope in 1955, noting that it was “so accurate that it can resolve 35,000 units of measurement in the thickness of this page.”
label: Description
content: Ref: T. G. Aitcheson, et. al., “Pivotal Mounting Means for Microscope Arms and the Like,” U.S. Patent 2,474,644 (June 28, 1949).
label: Description
content: American Optical Co. ad in <i>Transactions of the American Microscopical Society</i> 74 (Oct. 1955).
label: Description
content: Oscar W. Richards, "Measurement with the AO-Baker Interference Microscope," Applied Optics 3 (1964): 1027-1030.
label: Description
content: C. Baker, The Baker Interference Microscope (1954).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Buffalo
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Oscar W. Richards
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1980.0468.01
label: catalog number
content: 1980.0468.01
label: accession number
content: 1980.0468
label: serial number
content: 373366
objectType: label: Object Name
content: microscope
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 3/4 in x 9 in; x 12.065 cm x 22.86 cm