Accession No

0008

Brief Description

solar microscope, by William Harris, English, 1810 (c)

Origin

England; London; 50 Holborn

Maker

Harris, William

Class

microscopes

Earliest Date

1810

Latest Date

1810

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass, steel); glass; wood (mahogany, boxwood); ivory

Dimensions

box length 355mm; breadth 288mm; height 94mm

Special Collection

Robert Whipple collection

Provenance

Gifted to Robert Stewart Whipple by R. Irwin Lynch, Curator of the Botanic Gardens, Cambridge, in 09/1919.

Inscription

‘Wm Harris, 50 Holborn
LONDON’

Description Notes

Brass frame; square with threaded aperture; hinged to rectangular mirror; two screw holes and screw for attachment to shutter; two knurled screws adjust the position of the mirror; screw-fit conical body with condenser lens to cylindrical tube; screw-fit collar for translucent objects; steel spring bearing on two-part brass stage with a dovetailed shoe; broken lens on a collar focused by rack and knurled pinion. Opaque object box with hinged door. Screw to rear of hinged mirror which rests on a steel plate spring. Push-fit objective tube with two plano-convex lenses. Sprung plate holds slider in position. Trough for opaque objects. Talc and ring box. Slider with six objectives. Three boxwood slides. Forceps. Three brass condenser lenses marked ‘1 & 2’, ‘3 & 4’, ‘5 & 6’. Brass tube containing sprung plunger with three steel spikes. Seen through window in tube. Brass four-object slide with pierced heart shaped handle. Three slide trays. Ivory-handled pin. Wires. Tube. Stage forceps.
Mahogany box.

References

Events