solar microscope fashioned from screw-barrel simple microscope
Datecirca 1745
Inventory Number1169a
ClassificationMicroscope
Subject
Maker
Edward Bromfield
1723 - 1746
Maker
English
Collector
Ernst-Lewis Collection of Microscopes
Cultural Region
Place of Use
Dimensionsinstrument: 49 × 15 × 15.2 cm (19 5/16 × 5 7/8 × 6 in.)
box: 20 × 29.5 × 22 cm (7 7/8 × 11 5/8 × 8 11/16 in.)
box: 4.3 × 21 × 12.2 cm (1 11/16 × 8 1/4 × 4 13/16 in.)
box: 20 × 29.5 × 22 cm (7 7/8 × 11 5/8 × 8 11/16 in.)
box: 4.3 × 21 × 12.2 cm (1 11/16 × 8 1/4 × 4 13/16 in.)
Material
Accessoriesstorage box (1169b); accessories box (1169c)
DescriptionSmall brass solar microscope (1169a) is formed by a bricolage of a a Wilson screw-barrel microscope that is threaded onto a brass tube assembly that is fitted into a mahogany square panel. The tube assembly is brass, consisting of an eyepiece-shaped tube that slides onto a collar attached to a "tailpiece" of a brass draw tube going into a longer tube. The end of the tube has a condensing lens crudely held in a brass cell by rolled-over edges. (These may be telescope parts.)
The rectangular mirror outside of the panel is held in a wooden frame with iron screws and nails. The glass is broken and the silvering is corroded. Brass plates attached to the mirror frame allow it be adjustable. It can be tilted by means of a push rod attached to a long threaded steel screw with a winged brass head, and rotated by means of planetary gearing attached to another screw topped by a plain knob. Both screws are turned from the inside of the panel. The panel has two holes at diametrical corners for attaching it to a window shutter's opening
This microscope has a small flat case of accessories (1169c) and a storage box (1169b).
The rectangular mirror outside of the panel is held in a wooden frame with iron screws and nails. The glass is broken and the silvering is corroded. Brass plates attached to the mirror frame allow it be adjustable. It can be tilted by means of a push rod attached to a long threaded steel screw with a winged brass head, and rotated by means of planetary gearing attached to another screw topped by a plain knob. Both screws are turned from the inside of the panel. The panel has two holes at diametrical corners for attaching it to a window shutter's opening
This microscope has a small flat case of accessories (1169c) and a storage box (1169b).
Signedunsigned
ProvenanceEdward Bromfield, Boston, MA, c. 1745; Ernst-Lewis Collection of Microscopes, Harvard Medical School.
Historical AttributesThis application of an English screw-barrel microscope to telescope draw tubes in order to fashion a solar microscope was the idea of the Edward Bromfield (A.M. Harvard, 1742).
This microscope is said to be the first made in colonial America. Despite it being cobbled together, Sibley's Harvard Graduates says that young Bromfield was a skilled instrument maker, and that working drawings for the instrument are at the Harvard Medical School.
Claude Paris
Date: 1745-1750
Accessories: 4 objectives in wooden mounts; 2 pin wrenches; stage forceps; 4 wood slides with two specimens each.
Object number: 1183
Carl Zeiss, Optische Werkstätte, Jena
Date: circa 1886
Accessories: oculars (2): Leitz 4xB, Winkel Zeiss kl 2; objectives (4): Leitz 7, 1/7a oil immersion, Zeiss B, HI 90 iris, B&L 8mm, 1/5, Grunow 1/6; B&L double nosepiece; parabolic reflector for stage; Abbe condensor with iris-cylinder diaphragm; articulated substage mirror; frame for cup diaphragms; cup diaphragms (2); Zeiss-B&L polarizing analyzer A6; Zeiss-B&L vertical illuminator; flat case; key.
Object number: 1044
W. & S. Jones
Date: circa 1798
Accessories: See original index card.
Object number: 1184
Charles-Louis Chevalier
Date: circa 1840
Accessories: 2 convertible objectives: 1, 2, 3 and 0,00,000; 2 oculars; simple magnifiers: 3 and 5, with support bracket; extension pillar; bull's eye stage condenser on jointed arm; forceps; 3 prepared slides; box of cover glasses; 1/100 mm stage micrometer; camera lucida; tall bell jar; padlock on chain; case with key; table of magnifications
Object number: 1079
Peter & John Dollond
Date: circa 1768
Accessories: Aquatic and Wilson attachments; 2 lenses to fit either ; 2 silverplated Lieberkuhns with lenses ; stage forceps ; tweezers ; 3 bone slides ; 1 brass framed glass slide for Wilson
Object number: 1007
Nachet et Fils (I)
Date: 1862-1872
Accessories: 3 Objectives; 2 oculars; substage mirror with mounting screw lost; 1 prepared slide
Object number: 1030
Camille Sébastien Nachet
Date: 1856-1862
Accessories: oculars (2): 2 , 3; objectives (6) in fitted box (1029b): 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, along with substage condenser and oblique Nachet prism condenser; cup diaphram; flat case with parts box (1029c) holding diffuser, camera lucida; stage micrometer; ocular micrometer; wet specimen trough, 4 slides in red leather box (1029d); bull's eye condenser.
Object number: 1029a
Nachet et Fils (I)
Date: 1862
Accessories: 6 objectives in box (1157b) with 1 substage condenser; oblique prism condenser; 3 oculars; 1 cup diaphragm, 1 diffuser, ; camera lucida; stage and eyepiece micrometers; liquid trough; 3 dissecting knives; prepared slides in box (1157d); plain slides; cover glasses; bull's eye on jointed arm(1157e); Amici's illuminator prism with stand (1157f); compressorium (1157g); case with parts box (1157c).
Object number: 1157a
Carl Zeiss, Optische Werkstätte, Jena
Date: circa 1902
Accessories: oculars (5); objectives (5); microplanar objectives (2); iris diaphragm; abbe condenser; collars and sleeves for photography; parts box; Leitz object micrometer (1308b); cardioid condenser (1308d); immersion oil bottle (1308c) ; Leitz erecting prism (1308e); standing case with key
Object number: 1308a
Georges Oberhaeuser
Date: circa 1845
Accessories: objectives (3): 7 and 4 on nosepieces, unnumbered one detached; oculars (2); bull's eye condenser; live box; glass slides (4); case; key.
Object number: 1384
