Accession No
0683
Brief Description
microtome, rocking, by Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, English, 4/4 19th
Origin
England; Cambridge
Maker
Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company
Class
laboratory apparatus; biology; microscopes
Earliest Date
1881
Latest Date
1900
Inscription Date
Material
metal (iron, brass, steel, 2 types of white metal); rope (string); wood (boxwood and one other)
Dimensions
length 425mm; breadth 230mm; height 180mm
Special Collection
Robert Whipple collection
Provenance
Exchanged by the School of Anatomy, University of Cambridge, for a modern Cambridge Instrument Company instrument, through the offices of W.C.H. Duckworth & Prof. Wilson, on 29/08/1932. The original owner was E.J. Bles of Madingley Road, Cambridge, who died in 1926.
Inscription
Description Notes
Microtome, rocking; made by the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company; 4/4 19th.
Black-painted rocking microtome.
Cast iron base with splayed feet. Cast verticals with knurled brass screw clamps for knife. Cast verticals for pivoting support for rocking arm. Supporting arm rests on threaded steel shaft with knurled brass screw at top; cog wheel at base moved by wooden handled brass arm. Arm is attached to rocking arm by string via pulley wheel (string broken). Two heavy-duty springs from the base to the rocking arm and the support. Boxwood toggle for tightening cord of microtome; also a boxwood cylinder mounted behind the knife which would have been used for mounting a belt for carrying cut samples away.
Condition fair; incomplete.
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:44249
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