Microscope
notes: label: Description
content: A London optician named James Wilson (fl. 1702-1710) described a simple (single-lens) microscope in 1702. John Cuff (fl. 1731-1770) introduced his version in the early 1740s, terming it a “microscope for opake objects.” The key feature here was a small “Concave Speculum of Silver” that surrounded the lens and threw light onto the specimen to be seen. The idea for this mirror probably came from Johann Lieberkühn, a German physician and microscopist who had visited London in the late 1730s. Henry Baker was enormously pleased with Cuff’s instrument, noting that it “has afforded me more Delight and Satisfaction than I am able to describe.” George Adams, also of London, was selling similar instruments by 1746.
label: Description
content: This example was owned by Richard Halsted Ward (1837-1917), a noted medical microscopist, or his son, Henry B. Ward, a pioneering parasitologist. It is made of brass, with a wooden handle, iron forceps to hold the specimen, and a small reflector around the lens. It is simpler than those described by Wilson, Cuff, Adams, or other eighteenth- or nineteenth-century makers or dealers. Historians refer to this form as a “compass” microscope, presumably reflecting its resemblance to a drawing compass. Many similar pieces are known, but few are signed.
label: Description
content: Ref: James Wilson, “The Description and Manner of Using a Late Invented Set of Small-Pocket Microscopes, Made by James Wilson; Which with Great Ease are Apply’d in Viewing Opake, Transparent, and Liquid Objects,” <i>Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London</i> 23 (1702-1703): 1241-1247.
label: Description
content: <i>The Description of a Microscope for Opake Objects; As Made and Sold by John Cuff</i> (London, n.d.).
label: Description
content: Henry Baker, <i>The Microscope Made Easy</i> (London, 1742), pp. 26-30, and plate IIII.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Microscopes
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Miss Charlotte B. Ward
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-09733
label: catalog number
content: M-09733
label: accession number
content: 174919
objectType: label: Object Name
content: microscope
label: Other Terms
content: microscope; Medicine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7/8 in x 5/8 in x 5 3/8 in; 2.2225 cm x 1.5875 cm x 13.6525 cm