Accession No
1389
Brief Description
microtome, rocking, by Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company Ltd., English, 1895 (c)
Origin
England; Cambridge
Maker
Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company Ltd.
Class
laboratory apparatus; biology; microscopes
Earliest Date
1895
Latest Date
1895
Inscription Date
Material
metal (cast iron, brass, steel)
Dimensions
length 355mm; breadth 245mm; height 190mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Inscription
‘CAMBRIDGE SCIENTIFIC
INSTRUMENT COMPANY
LIMITED’ (on a brass plate)
Description Notes
Microtome, rocking; made by the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company; circa 1895.
Cast iron base with splayed feet painted black; cast verticals with brass knurled screw clamps for knife (missing); cast uprights for pivotted support for rocking arm; rocking arm with steel axis and brass block with screw clamp (no steel shaft into the arm as on Wh: 1363), support on steel screw with brass cogged wheel operated by a handle on brass shaft with spring steel cog turning the brass wheel, and connected by pulley to the rocking arm. Rocking arm has a vertical shaft with brass arm for the attachment of pulley rope.
One of the clamping screws is broken and one of the springs broken.
Similar to Wh: 1426.
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:44085
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