Accession No
L2021.IN049.4
Brief Description
box of microscope objectives, two individual microscope objectives, and an adjustable microscope mirror, used by embryologist Francis Maitland Balfour, by Carl Zeiss and Gundlach, German, mid- to late 19th Century
Origin
Germany; Jena [Carl Zeiss] and Germany; Berlin [Gundlach]
Maker
Carl Zeiss Gundlach
Class
microscopes
Earliest Date
1870
Latest Date
1882
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass, steel, white metal, copper alloy); glass; wood
Dimensions
Special Collection
Provenance
On loan from the Department of Zoology from December 2021. Belonged to Francis Maitland Balfour.
Inscription
[see description notes]
Description Notes
Box of microscope objectives, two individual microscope objectives, and an adjustable microscope mirror, used by embryologist Francis Maitland Balfour, by Carl Zeiss and Gundlach, German, mid- to late 19th Century.
Box of microscope objectives (19 parts total)
Nine microscope objectives screwed into three metal plates in the base of a wooden box. The wooden box has a nameplate on the lid engraved 'F. M. BALFOUR / MORPHOLOGICAL LABORATORY / 1882'. The objectives are:
1. Brass Zeiss aa objective engraved 'Zeiss / aa / 6.3' and 'F. M. B. 1882' (two parts)
2. Brass and black-painted objective with no engravings (two parts)
3. Brass and black-painted Zeiss a objective engraved 'Zeiss / a' and 'F. M. B. 1882' (two parts)
4. Brass and black-painted Zeiss A objective engraved 'Zeiss / A / A / 573' and 'F. M. B. 1882' (two parts)
5. Brass and black-painted Zeiss c objective engraved ' C.Zeiss / C' and '1295' (appears to be one part)
6. Brass and black-painted Zeiss C objective engraved 'Zeiss / C' and 'F. M. B. 1882' and '710' (two parts)
7. Brass and black-painted Zeiss B objective engraved 'Zeiss / B' and 'F. M. B.' and '0,17' [difficult to read engravings due to abrasions] (two parts)
8. Brass and black-painted Zeiss J objective engraved 'Zeiss / J' and 'F. M. B.' and '0,16' (two parts)
9. Brass and black-painted Zeiss E objective engraved 'Zeiss / E' and 'C. Zeiss E 0,16' and '780' (three parts)
Oil-immersion apochromatic objective (five parts)
Copper alloy and white metal objective in a brass case. The objective is made up of three parts and is engraved 'Carl Zeiss / Jena' and 'Hommog Immers' and 'Tubusl.160mm' and '3mm Apert.1.40' and '542'. The case is made up of two parts and is engraved 'Apochromat / 3mm / Apert.1.40 / Hommog Immers' and 'Carl Zeiss, Jena' and '2'.
2" low-power objective (four parts)
Brass and copper alloy objective in a brass case. The objective is made up of two parts and is engraved 'GUNDLACH' and '2In' and 'F. M. B.' The case is made up of two parts and is engraved with 'GUNDLACH BERLIN / 2 In / F. M. B. / C. BAKER / AGENT / LONDON'.
Adjustable mirror (one part)
Brass and black-painted adjustable arm with a rotating mirror, engraved 'F. M. B.'.
See initial condition report for detailed photos.
References
Events
Description
Francis Maitland Balfour (1851-1882) was an embryologist and the first (and only) Professor of Animal Morphology at the University of Cambridge.
Balfour went to Trinity College in 1870 and published his first paper, on the embryology on the chick, before he graduated. After graduating, he was elected Fellow of Trinity in 1874 and and worked for two years at the Stazione Zoological in Naples. His research there was on the embryology of elasmobranch fishes, on which he published several papers and a major book (1878). Using his intellect and charm, Balfour formed around him a major school of embryologists - the first in this country. His Treatise on Comparative Embryology, which summarised the whole field and contained new observations, was judged to be a 'a work full of new light from beginning to end'. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1878 and was awarded their Royal Medal in 1881.
In 1882, a special chair of Animal Morphology at the University of Cambridge was created for Balfour. However, in June that year, while in Switzerland to recuperate from typhoid fever, he and his guide died trying to ascend the Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey mountain in the Mont Blanc Massif.
Michael Foster, his first teacher in Cambridge, wrote, "The remarkable powers which Balfour possessed of rapid yet exact observation, of quick insight into the meaning of things observed, of imaginative daring in hypothesis kept straight by the singularly clear logical sense, through which the proved was sharply distinguished from the merely probable, made all biologists hope that the striking work which he had already accomplished was but the earnest of still greater things to come."
Balfour kept in contact with Zeiss during the period of its greatest pioneering developments and was quick to acquire new microscope lenses as they became available. The dates of acquisition of different lenses can to some extent be traced from their mention in the captions to the plates in Balfour's papers. Some are engraved 1882, the year of Balfour's death, which is likely commemorative rather than the date of their acquisition.
[Adapted from labels at the Department of Zoology]
25/05/2022
Created by: Morgan Bell on 25/05/2022
FM:47529
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