Accession No
1373
Brief Description
microtome, rocking, by Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company Ltd., English, circa 1897
Origin
England; Cambridge
Maker
Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company Ltd.
Class
laboratory apparatus; biology; microscopes
Earliest Date
1897
Latest Date
1897
Inscription Date
Material
metal (cast iron, steel, brass)
Dimensions
length 353mm; breadth 245mm; height 182mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Inscription
‘SCIENTIFIC INST. CO. LTD CAMBRIDGE NO 65’ (cast on base)
Description Notes
Microtome, rocking; made by the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company; circa 1897.
Cast iron with painted red finish; splayed feet with countersink screw sockets; cast uprights with screw clamps (broken) for knife edge (missing). Cast verticals for pivotting support for rocking arm; arm with steel axis and knurled clamp for block (missing); support rests of turned steel screw with cogged wheel which tilts the rocking arm towards the knife; operated by handle on brass arm with a sprung steel cog fitting the brass wheel and connected by pulleys to the rocking arm, which is different from that on all the others.
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:44074
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