Accession No
1818
Brief Description
replica accessories for a muschenbroek type microscope, attributed to John Mayall, English, circa 1886
Origin
England [based on attributed maker]
Maker
Mayall, John [attributed]
Class
microscopes
Earliest Date
1886
Latest Date
1886
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass); glass; wood (ebony)
Dimensions
accessories bag length 205mm; breadth 110mm; microscope in bag length 117 mm; breadth 125
Special Collection
Heywood collection
Provenance
Purchased from the H.Heywood collection with the assistance of a Science Museum grant-in-aid.
Inscription
Description Notes
six objectives mounted in brass plates; three 2-pronged forks; five various pins and prongs; two objectives with brass and ebony; hand lens in ebony; two slide holders, one spring pivoted to a threaded brass rod.
References
Events
Description
John Mayall (Junior) was a prominent member of both the Queckett Microcsopical Club and the Royal Microscopical Society. He was a friend of Sir Frank Crisp and helped him to acquire microscopes for his extensive collection. Most notably Mayall was involved in the acquisition by Crisp of microscopes from Kings College London, including several items which had been part of the George III collection.
The simple microscope is essentially one lens, or one thick lens which is composed of two or three pieces of glass. The simple microscope has a short focal length which means that in order to focus clearly the microscope has to be held up to the eye. The magnifying power in this type of microscope ranged from 70 to 250 times.
FM:43262
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