Cuff-type compound microscope
Datecirca 1766
Inventory Number1109
ClassificationMicroscope
Subject
Maker
George Adams (I)
1709 - 1772
Inventor
John Cuff
1708 - 1772
Cultural Region
Place of Origin
Dimensions41.9 × 17.8 × 17.8 cm (16 1/2 × 7 × 7 in.)
Material
Accessories6 ivory slides; 2 wooden slides
DescriptionBrass microscope of the style of John Cuff's "new-constructed double microscope" is fixed on a wooden chest with a single drawer.
The optical assembly has all its optics. The ocular lens has a sliding dust cap. The "nose piece" above the objective is quite long and is inscribed with the numerals 2 (at top) through 6 (at the bottom). These correspond to positions to set the lieberkuhn carrier for each objective originally included with the microsope. (All but one objective are missing.) The carrier is a 2.5 inch cylindrical sleeve with cut-away sides. It slides up and down on the tube. Its bottom is threaded to take the lieberkuhn. Thus the sleeve allows the lieberkuhn to be focused independently of the objectives used in the main body.
The optical tube is mounted on a bracket fixed to a rectangular pillar that slides up and down along side a fixed pillar of similar dimensions. Coarse adjustments are made with a clamping screw set into a collar sliding on the fixed pillar. Fine adjustments are made with a vertical, long, steel focusing screw with a knurled brass head. The top of the screw goes through the bracket; the bottom goes through the sliding collar. The appropriate setting for each objective is inscribed on the fixed pillar with numerals 1 (at bottom) to 6 (at the top). The two pillars are set into an upright, rectangular brass sleeve that is screwed to the microscope's brass base and stablized by an elegant scrolling leg.
The stage has three wings. There are two slots: one to take a fish plate; another to mount a condensing lens or stage forceps. In the center of the stage is a removable, spring-loaded collar for the insertion of slides.
A concave glass mirror is held in a brass bezel and frame and is free to move on a C-shaped support mounted in the microscope brass base.
The brass base is screwed in a corner and along a diagonal of the top of wooden chest. Made from mahogany, it appears to be a later replacement. The drawer has a ring pull. It is subdivided into three compartments to hold accessories.
Two wooden slides and six ivory slides are in the drawer. They come from different sets and many cells are empty.
The optical assembly has all its optics. The ocular lens has a sliding dust cap. The "nose piece" above the objective is quite long and is inscribed with the numerals 2 (at top) through 6 (at the bottom). These correspond to positions to set the lieberkuhn carrier for each objective originally included with the microsope. (All but one objective are missing.) The carrier is a 2.5 inch cylindrical sleeve with cut-away sides. It slides up and down on the tube. Its bottom is threaded to take the lieberkuhn. Thus the sleeve allows the lieberkuhn to be focused independently of the objectives used in the main body.
The optical tube is mounted on a bracket fixed to a rectangular pillar that slides up and down along side a fixed pillar of similar dimensions. Coarse adjustments are made with a clamping screw set into a collar sliding on the fixed pillar. Fine adjustments are made with a vertical, long, steel focusing screw with a knurled brass head. The top of the screw goes through the bracket; the bottom goes through the sliding collar. The appropriate setting for each objective is inscribed on the fixed pillar with numerals 1 (at bottom) to 6 (at the top). The two pillars are set into an upright, rectangular brass sleeve that is screwed to the microscope's brass base and stablized by an elegant scrolling leg.
The stage has three wings. There are two slots: one to take a fish plate; another to mount a condensing lens or stage forceps. In the center of the stage is a removable, spring-loaded collar for the insertion of slides.
A concave glass mirror is held in a brass bezel and frame and is free to move on a C-shaped support mounted in the microscope brass base.
The brass base is screwed in a corner and along a diagonal of the top of wooden chest. Made from mahogany, it appears to be a later replacement. The drawer has a ring pull. It is subdivided into three compartments to hold accessories.
Two wooden slides and six ivory slides are in the drawer. They come from different sets and many cells are empty.
Signedon stage: G Adams at No 60 Fleet Street LONDON
Curatorial RemarksThis is a very fine example of a Cuff-type compound microscope.
FunctionCuff's improvement to the microscope was announced in a pamphlet in 1744. He made the stage open and able to take any sort of object.
ProvenancePurchased by William Ashburner circa 1840; gift to Dr. Rupert Norton, Baltimore; gift to Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton, 1914; gift to the Ernst-Lewis Collection, Harvard Medical School, 1939, through the agency of Dr. James Lincoln Huntington.
Historical AttributesAccording to the donor, Miss Elizabeth Norton (1866-circa 1950), the daughter of Professor Charles Eliot Norton, this microscope was bought originally and used by her great uncle, William Ashburner. Ashburner was born and grew up in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He worked mostly in California, where he was an inspector of mines during the Gold Rush. He was engaged to inspect ores with a view to purchase or mining by others. He was influential in the creation of the park system in San Francisco, bring Frederick Law Olmsted there in the 1860s.
Miss Norton thought that Ashburner "must have bought the microscope when he was in Europe. He valued it highly, and toward the end of his life was pleased to give it to my brother [Dr. Rupert Norton]."
The microscope passed from Dr. Rupert Norton (1867-1914) to his sister at his death. In 1939, Elizabeth presented the microscope to the Ernst-Lewis Collection at the Medical School through the agency of Dr. James Lincoln Huntington."
Andrew Pritchard
Date: 1835-1840
Accessories: objectives (4); oculars (6); lieberkühns (4); stage forceps; bull's eye condenser on stand; spring stage; extra mechanical stage; polarizer; cup diaphragms and holders; substage fork mount; live box; glass troughs (2); concave glass; fish tube holder; case; 2 keys. See also slide micrometers (2) (1088b,c)
Object number: 1088a
English
Date: circa 1775
Accessories: 5 objectives; 1 ocular; Lieberkühn; stage forceps; live box; bull's eye lens mounted on pillar; pyramidal box.
Object number: 1244
Edward Marmaduke Clarke
Date: 1838-1840
Accessories: 5 objectives for simple microscope; 2 objectives for compound microscope (1 in can; 1 with lieberkuhn); cup diaphragm with lieberkuhn in brass box; brass box of cover slips; stage forceps; tweezers; 2 live boxes; frog plate; bull's eye; fish tube wire; wrench; chamois; 2 unmounted lenses; 40 prepared slides; standing case; 2 keys.
Object number: 1018
Edmund Culpeper
Date: circa 1730
Accessories: 6 objectives for screw-barrel microscope; 3 objectives for compound body; 1 lieberkuhn; 1 opaque attachment; brass box; 2 ivory slides, 1 brass wet-cell slide; tweezer; ivory handle; glass specimen fish tube; storage box; instruction booklet by Culpeper (stored in instrument file).
Object number: 1173
Harmanus van Deyl
Date: 1807
Accessories: 2 objectives; 2 eye lenses for a fixed field lens; 1 Lieberkühn; frogplate; bull's eye; stage forceps; spring stage; live box; hand lens; 2 tweezers; 2 boxes with 59 specimen slides; glass disk; black disk; "fish" tube with wire; ivory box of mica cover slips; 5 glass slides; 3 lenses; 2 keys.
Object number: 2002-1-0075a
Hugh Powell
Date: 1841
Accessories: oculars (2); objectives (3): 1/2, 1/8, 1/4 with attachable Lieberkühn; stage slide holder; stage fish plate holder; X-Y mechanical stage; fish plate; prepared slides (2); plain glass slides (2) and cover slips (2); box of cover slips; sponge; cotton bag; folding scalpel; fish plate; mount for stage forceps; fishhook; assorted hardware; case
Object number: 1164
W. & S. Jones
Date: circa 1795
Accessories: rotating disc with 6 objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; objectives with Lieberkuhn reflectors (2); Lieberkuhn attachment; conical diaphragm, stage forceps with calipers; fish plate; silk ribbon; tweezers; Bonanni spring stage; prepared ivory slides (7), standing case.
Object number: 1041
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
R. & J. Beck
Date: 1876
Accessories: Beck patent substage condenser (1122c); apertometer (1122d)
Object number: 1122b
Claude-Siméon Passemant
Date: 1749-1769
Accessories: ocular; objectives (7); bull's eye condenser; Lieberkühn for stage mounting; cone diaphragm; spring frame for slides; frog plate; stage forceps; large and small black and white disks (2); round micrometer slide with fine wire screen; low-power lens; black aperture disk; brass slider for 4 specimens; ivory slides--rectangular (6); ivory slides--circular (2); brass slide with aperture to hold circular ivory slides; boxes (2) of round ivory slides (40 in total).
Object number: 1182
Matthew Loft
Date: 1730-1747
Accessories: ocular (1); objectives (6); fish plate; substage cone diaphragm; round spring slide holder; stage forceps; bull's eye condenser; wet specimen glass cup; rotating slide speciment holder with black and white disks; small black and white disks as bead on cord; brass spring; spare collar from an ocular; pyramidal box.
Object number: 1242
Edward Bryan
Date: 1866-1879
Accessories: objectives in canisters (3): 1/4, 1, 2 inch; ocular; live box; box of cover slips; prepared slides (5 small, 12 large); ivory slide; 5 powdered specimens in blue paper; bull's eye condenser; stage forceps; standing case with parts drawer.
Object number: 1085