90 MR. A. C. BANFIELD 



every sympathy, and I wish it every success, and shall be glad to 

 do anything to assist it. That is one thing, but the progress of 

 the microscope as an instrument of research and an instrument of 

 precision is quite another thing, and we must not forget the one in 

 view of the other. It was particularly gratifying to find that whilst 

 two of our manufacturing friends were good enough to come here 

 this evening and to speak almost entirely of mass production, the 

 third gave us some prospect of work which was directed towards 

 achieving the best possible that could be acKieved, and I hope that 

 it will not only receive the acknowledgment which I am sure it 

 will deserve at the hands of all users of the microscope, but that 

 all manufacturers will feel, I think I may say, that it is their 

 duty, to look after that side of the thing, just as much as to send 

 out a cheap microscope by the thousand ; I hope they will succeed 

 in both. 



Mr. A. C. Banfield {C ommunicated). 



War considerations and other matters have prevented any active 

 participation on my part in things microscopical for the last five 

 years, yet, once having used a microscope, it is impossible entirely 

 to lose one's interest in this important aid to scientific research. 



One of the main objects of this Symposium is to suggest possible 

 means of improvement to this instrument, and I will confine my 

 remarks entirely to certain points which have occurred to me at 

 various times. 



(1) It is the custom at present, in all high grade microscopes, 

 to supply them with two slides, which carry respectively the coarse 

 and fine adjustments. This is an expensive form of construction, 

 and as I am one of those persons of opinion that very little is 

 mechanically impossible, it should be possible to eliminate one of 

 these slides, making the single slide do duty for both adjustments. 

 Also, as constructed at present, the fine adjustment slide is nearest 

 to the limb, thus causing the delicate micrometer screw or lever to 

 carry the weight of the parts necessary to operate the coarse move- 

 ment in addition to that of the body tube — the only part the fine 

 adjustment should move. 



(2) It is hard to explain the preference which undoubtedly exists 

 in this country for the tripod foot, rightly termed the *' English " 

 foot, for it exists in no other country. Many English manufacturers 

 enthuse on " the beautiful hand work " to be found in their instru- 

 ments, and I imagine that the tripod foot is especially designed to 

 show this off. Now the universal trend in all modern manufacturing 

 is to eliminate entirely all possible hand work; nothing adds more 

 to the total cost of any article than operations which have to be 

 carried out entirely by hand. My indictment of the tripod foot is 

 that it is of a shape which is difiicult to cast, and impossible to 

 machine. It is, furthermore, very bulky, and seriously interferes 

 with the efficient operation of the sub-stage when the microscope is 

 in a vertical position. A greater rigidity is claimed for this foot ; 

 this certainly is correct if one wants to lean on the instrument, 

 otherwise there is no advantage over the horse-shoe foot, resting on 

 its three milled pads. 



