Microscope
date: label: date made
content: ca 1870
notes: label: Description
content: While fish tanks were known in Ancient Rome and Medieval China, balanced aquariums were not developed until the 1840s. After the London Zoo opened an impressive Fish House in 1853, and several enthusiasts produced books explaining how aquatic plants and animals would keep other alive, aquarium keeping became the order of the day—and microscopes for examining plants and animals in aquaria were soon to be had.
label: Description
content: Frederick Blankley presented a “Tank Microscope” made by James Powell Swift to the Royal Microscopical Society in 1870. It was, he said, “constructed in a simple and inexpensive way, which may induce many to study ‘Life as it is’ in the aquarium, without having to expend a large sum of money for the purpose.” Richard Halsted Ward showed a Swift tank microscope at an American microscopical meeting later that year.
label: Description
content: This example, which came from Ward’s daughter, is a compound monocular held on a horizontal arm; this is mounted on a square brass pole, and equipped with rack-and-pinion for focus; the pole, in turn, stands on a heavy cylindrical base.
label: Description
content: Ref: “A Revolving Stage and a Tank Microscope,” <i>Monthly Microscopical Journal</i> 3 (1870): 209-210.
label: Description
content: “Report of the Microscopes and Microscopical Apparatus Exhibited at the Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Troy, N.Y., August 1870,” <i>Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science</i> 18 (1870): 381-384, on 384.
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
label: See more items in
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-09726
label: accession number
content: 174919
label: catalog number
content: M-09726
label: catalog number
content: 174919.11
objectType: label: Object Name
content: microscope
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 45.9 cm x 9.2 cm x 22.6 cm; 18 1/16 in x 3 5/8 in x 8 7/8 in