Leitz Compound Microscope (No. 188)

Made:  1905
Made by: Ernst Leitz
Made in: Wetzlar, Germany
Mahogany case
Imaging
This Leitz compound brass and steel microscope is perhaps the youngest in the Golub Collection. It is monocular, has a revolving nose-piece, three objectives, and separate coarse and fine focus. The microscope body is supported by, and pivots on a solid U-shaped base. The single Huygenian eyepiece has a 10x magnification. There are two Leitz objectives: one with low magnification, and one high magnification, oil immersion objective (both probably originals). A third objective is a Carl Zeiss medium magnification objective. All three objectives are mounted on a revolving nosepiece. Coarse focus is typical rack-and-pinion. Fine focus is spring-loaded, and adjusted using the large micrometer thumbscrew behind the body tube. This microscope has a variable mechanical tube length to compensate for variability in back focal length between objectives. The condenser has a single large lens and an adjustable iris. Illumination is via a reflecting mirror. This microscope has a mahogany carrying case with three drawers.

The serial number 82359 dates this microscope (thanks to Timo Mappes of the Museum of Optical Instruments, http://www.musoptin.com).

The optics of this microscope have been characterized by students at UC Berkeley.

Featured 1/2005, 07/2018

Sat, Jun 30, 2018