Accession No
1363
Brief Description
microtome, rocking, by Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, English, 1891
Origin
England; Cambridge
Maker
Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company
Class
laboratory apparatus; biology; microscopes
Earliest Date
1891
Latest Date
1891
Inscription Date
Material
metal (cast iron, steel, brass); rope (string)
Dimensions
length 375mm; breadth 242mm; height 196mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Inscription
Description Notes
Microtome, rocking; made by Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company; 1891.
Cast iron base with red paint, two cast, vertical supports for the steel knife edge, with knurled brass clamping screws; rocker arm, brass block on steel shaft sliding inside the arm clamped by a knurled brass screw; arm pivots on a steel axis resting on a groove on a pivotting, sprung arm which connects to a threaded shaft and notched wheel. Brass arm and handle connected to the rocker arm by a string (not extant) with a sprung steel cog which located in the notched wheel and slightly alters the pivotting shaft thus moving the specimen fractionally closer to the knife edge with each action of the handle.
References
Events
Description
A microtome is a laboratory instrument used to cut extremely thin slices of material, called sections. These are usually cut from specimens of human or animal tissue (embedded in a soft material like paraffin wax), and are produced for inspection under a microscope. The “rocking” type of microtome was designed by Charles Darwin’s son, Horace Darwin. Horace co-founded the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company with Albert George Dew-Smith in 1881, and the firm began manufacturing Horace’s microtome design from 1885. This design, with updates, continued to be produced well into the second half of the twentieth century. As a Cambridge Instruments sales catalogue boasted, “simplicity of operation makes it an ideal instrument for the use of students or for routine work and it has become the standard microtome for general use in laboratories all over the world.”
This particular model could cut sections between 0.002mm and 0.024mm thick.
14/03/2014
Created by: Joshua Nall on 14/03/2014
FM:44046
Images (Click to view full size):
