PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPY 

 FROM A MANUFACTURER'S POINT OF VIEW. 



By F. Watson Baker. 



The manufacturer, of necessity, is acquainted with the trend 

 of microscopical development in every direction, for he is beset 

 with suggestion and demand from workers throughout the world. 

 The instruments he designs are largely moulded on his interpreta- 

 tion of such demands. 



To a great extent there must be uniformity of design, but the 

 expert, being usually a specialist, finds from experience that 

 methods of work which he adopts as his own entail alterations of 

 construction, and there is a tendency for such workers to attach 

 importance to these details, and to recommend their incorporation 

 in standard models. 



It would be a matter of interest to see what the result would 

 be if six independent leading workers were to prepare a specification 

 of an ideal ^^iicrcscops and Photomicrographic Camera. 



English manufacturers have been in a position to meet the 

 varied wishes of their patrons, because much of their work has 

 been done bv hand, and whereas with the machine-made micro- 

 scope of the Continent and America the pattern has had to be 

 taken as it stood, stipulations have invariably accompanied orders 

 for all classes of English microscopes that certain features should 

 be varied to suit the special views of those with whom the order 

 rested. 



Manufacturing in this manner has not tended to economic pro- 

 duction, and, judging by the fact that it is possible to count all 

 the manufacturers in Great Britain on the fingers of one hand at 

 the present time, it will be fair to assume that such work is either 

 unremunerative or involves difficulty or some disadvantage which 

 discourages enterprise. 



Past history reveals the fact that the development of the 

 mechanical part of the microscope especially has been due to the 

 British manufacturer, who has been largely directed and aided by 

 notable progressive w^orkers. 



It is therefore not without interest to mention that thirty-eight 

 years ag^o microscopes meeting fully to-day's needs, both in accuracy 

 of working movements and stability of design, were made in this 

 country. 



When apochromatic objectives were first introduced, the only 

 microscope stand on which they could be advantageously used was 

 a British-made one. This alone had a fine adjustment worthy of 

 its name and an efficient achromatic condenser. 



Apochromatic substage condensers with means of centering them 

 to the objective, the mechanical drawtube and the incorporated 

 mechanical stage, together with the tripod form of foot, which 

 alone gives stability in the instrument, were first made in this 

 country. 



