258 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [November, 



them? If, then, there be at his elbow a small, simple camera which 

 can be at once applied to the micrc^scope without the slightest altera- 

 tion of the latter, save inclining the body to a horizontal position, using 

 the same source of illumination, be it diffused daylight or that of the 

 ordinary lamp, has he not a boon within his reach, which a few years 

 since would have been deemed impossible? And are not his thanks 

 due to the fellow-worker, whose own wants found expression in the 

 original of the " Handy" photo-micro camera? 



My friend, Mr. H. Wingate, of Philadelphia, has long been an ar- 

 dent worker with the microscope, his studies being almost exclusively 

 confined to the minute fungi belonging to the family of myxogastres. 

 He is exceedingly skilful with the pencil, and his drawings of these 

 minute organisms, their spores, etc., are at least equal to any that have 

 ever come under my observation. But, being actively engaged in 

 business, the time wasted in making these drawings was a large tax, 

 and he determined upon calling in the aid of photography ; and there 

 being absolutely no camera in the market to meet his requirements, 

 he proceeded to construct one. Procuring a plate holder of the proper 

 size, he built the camera to suit it, after the plan of the man who carried 

 the bung hole to a cooper shop to have a barrel made for it. His 

 materials were some heavy, blackened cardf board, and an old piece of a 

 steam-fitting some four inches long ; his tools, a pocket knife and a 

 glue pot, with the brains to use them. With these crude appliances he 

 produced a camera, adapted to his microscope, and capable of doing 

 the highest class of work. He uses a Zeiss ^^^^ homogeneous lens con- 

 stantly ; and frequently makes a dozen or more negatives of an evening 

 therewith. 



Upon seeing this little affair, I was at once struck with the conviction 

 that if it could be produced in a form adaptable to any microscope, it 

 would fully meet the long-felt want of just such an instrument. The 

 result was the construction of the " Handy " camera, which has already 

 been supplied to many institutions of learning and to private workers. 



The camera consists of a mahogany box about 2^" square, corrugated 

 and blackened on the inside to prevent any reflections of light. A solid 

 cone of some four inches in length, tapering to receive the tube of the 

 microscope, is attached to the front of the box. Preferably, this cone 

 front should be in a bellows form, as in the sample sent, but being rather 

 more costly than the solid cone, many will be satisfied with the latter. 

 In the one case the bellows responds readily to the movements of the 

 microscope tube in focusing ; in the other the tube must slide readily 

 into and out of the solid cone. At the opposite end of the box is a 

 groove, in which the plate-holder and frame containing the focusing 

 screen slide. The former carries two plates 2^" square, amply large 

 for all ordinary illustrations. Should larger-sized pictures be required 

 they can be made by enlarging upon bromide paper. 



The focusing screen is made of very thin crystal glass, most carefully 

 ground by hand ; presenting the smoothest surface obtainable by this 

 means, but still quite too coarse for the exact focusing of delicately 

 marked objects. In fact the focusing screen is mainly useful in pro- 

 curing even and full illumination of the field, and in properly centering 

 the object. The final fixing of the exact focus is done by means of a 

 focusing glass used in conjunction with a disk of thin cover-glass at- 



