Accession No
0467
Brief Description
simple / compound microscope, screw barrel type, by Edmund Culpeper, English, 1720 (c)
Origin
England; London
Maker
Culpeper, Edmund
Class
microscopes
Earliest Date
1720
Latest Date
1720
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass, steel); ivory; wood; glass; leather (fish-skin); cloth (velvet)
Dimensions
bag length 115mm; breadth 95mm; height 40mm; case length 181 mm; breadth 74 mm; height 50 mm
Special Collection
Robert Whipple collection
Provenance
Purchased from T.H. Court in 03/1929.
Inscription
“Culpeper Fecit” (on body);
“EC” (on stage plate)
Description Notes
Brass with compound body; threaded condenser tube in brass body with threaded ferrule to turned ivory handle; brass and wood three piece stage; plates marked 1-3; steel spring; four objectives marked ‘2’, ‘3’, ‘4’, ‘5’ & ‘6’; three with ivory dust caps; condenser stop; tweezers and pin; brass lens-holder for viewing opaque objects; combined stage forceps and black and white ground; stage plate decoratively engraved and marked “EC”; glass tube; ivory talc and ring box. Fitted box covered with black shagreen and lined with green velvet. “Culpeper Facit” on body.
References
Events
Description
This type of simple microscope, employing only one lens, was first described in 1702, by James Wilson in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. The design was in fact the work of the Dutch microscopist Nicolaas Hartsoeker.
The essential feature of the design is the threaded cylinder, carrying a condensing lens, which screws in and out of the body. The microscope is hand-held, and the slide is inserted at one end — the whole instrument is then pointed towards a light source.
Large numbers of these microscopes were made, and they proved extremely popular. This was in part due to the recommendation of John Harris, in his 1704 book Lexicon Technicum, in which he wrote that “of all microscopes I have ever seen for commodiousness, various uses, portability and cheapness, I never met with anything like Mr. Wilson’s Glasses.”
26/02/2008
Created by: Boris Jardine, with text from Olivia Brown’s Catalogue 7 on 26/02/2008
FM:43261
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