JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 
JUNE 1895. 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 
VI . — ■ Patents connected with the Microscope. — 1666-1800. 
By W. H. Brown, Assistant Secretary R.M.S. 
( Read 20th March, 1895.) 
Plates IY. and Y. 
I have great pleasure in drawing the attention of the Society to the 
following few facts relating to the early history of the Microscope, 
which, as far as I can trace, appear to have hitherto been overlooked 
in all the treatises which have yet appeared relating to that in- 
strument. 
When examining the Society’s collection of instruments with 
Mr. T. D. Aldous, F.R.M.S., preparatory to making an inventory of 
the same, our attention was directed to the patent Microscope made 
by George Lindsay. It was then suggested by one of us that 
probably further information might be obtained if the specifications 
of the early patents were examined. With this object in view, I have 
been to the Library of the Patent Office and have gone through the 
reprints of the specifications relating to the patents from the earliest, 
dated 1617, down to the year 1800. During this, period nearly 2500 
patents were issued, the specifications of which I have carefully 
examined. 
I would first call attention to Patent No. 71,* dated 24th June, 
1 634, granted by Charles I. to Arnold Rotsipen for “ manie engines 
and instruments ... To Forme and to Polishe all Manner of 
Opticall Sections, whether Concave, Convex, or Mixed, Elliptique, 
Parabolique, Hiperbolique, or Sphericall, of Iron, of Steele, or of anie 
other mixed Metalls, Harde or Softe, much better and in shorter 
Tyme then can be done by Hand, or by anie knowne Meanes hitherto 
vsed.” The specification then gives a list of other instruments invented 
by Rotsipen, but which have no connection with optical instruments. 
Whatever this patent may refer to, it is evident that it is too vague 
to be identified with the Microscope. My object in including it here 
1895 
* Reprinted and published by the Patent Office in 1857. 
S 
