Accession No
6765
Brief Description
simple sliding microtome, attributed to Robert Fulcher, English, late 19th Century
Origin
England; Cambridge
Maker
Fulcher, Robert [attributed]
Class
laboratory apparatus
Earliest Date
1878
Latest Date
1881
Inscription Date
Material
metal (brass); wood; wax; cork
Dimensions
(box) length 242mm, width 110mm, height 120mm (microtome) length 222mm, width 89mm, height 50mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Donated by the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, in December 2021.
Inscription
Description Notes
Simple sliding microtome, attributed to R. Fulcher, English.
There are two parallel slides, one horizontal and the other inclined, the former taking the knife carrier and the latter the specimen carrier. Successive sections are taken by sliding the knife to and fro, advancing the specimen up the inclined slide between each cut. The thickness of the section is roughly determined from the Vernier scale. The microtome is placed with four other parts in a wooden box.
References
Events
Description
When Cambridge University established the Science Tripos, there were no facilities for making apparatus in Cambridge. To meet their requirements for apparatus, the research and teaching staff had to make their own. In 1878, the workshop of Cambridge University's Department of Mechanism began to make the apparatus needed for the Science Tripos.
Microtomes were once important scientific instruments in order to produce thin slices for of material for examination under a microscope. The famous example, the rocking microtome, was invented by Horace Darwin, son of Charles Darwin. This simple sliding microtome is another example of the early products made by Robert Fulcher.
Robert Fulcher, a mechanic at that time, worked at the Cavendish Laboratory. Financially supported by Albert George Dew-Smith, he set up a workshop that later became Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company (with Horace Darwin joining a few years later).
This sliding microtome was used by zoologist William Hay Caldwell in the years before he developed the automatic microtome with Richard Threlfall.
14/11/2022
Created by: Guey-Mei Hsu on 14/11/2022
FM:47568
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