Microscope

Object Details

Description

While fish tanks were known in Ancient Rome and Medieval China, balanced aquariums were not developed until the 1840s. After the London Zoo opened an impressive Fish House in 1853, and several enthusiasts produced books explaining how aquatic plants and animals would keep other alive, aquarium keeping became the order of the day—and microscopes for examining plants and animals in aquaria were soon to be had.

Frederick Blankley presented a “Tank Microscope” made by James Powell Swift to the Royal Microscopical Society in 1870. It was, he said, “constructed in a simple and inexpensive way, which may induce many to study ‘Life as it is’ in the aquarium, without having to expend a large sum of money for the purpose.” Richard Halsted Ward showed a Swift tank microscope at an American microscopical meeting later that year.

This example, which came from Ward’s daughter, is a compound monocular held on a horizontal arm; this is mounted on a square brass pole, and equipped with rack-and-pinion for focus; the pole, in turn, stands on a heavy cylindrical base.

Ref: “A Revolving Stage and a Tank Microscope,” Monthly Microscopical Journal 3 (1870): 209-210.

“Report of the Microscopes and Microscopical Apparatus Exhibited at the Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Troy, N.Y., August 1870,” Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 18 (1870): 381-384, on 384.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Miss Charlotte B. Ward

ca 1870

ID Number

MG.M-09726

accession number

174919

catalog number

M-09726

174919.11

Object Name

microscope

Physical Description

glass (overall material)

brass (overall material)

Measurements

overall: 45.9 cm x 9.2 cm x 22.6 cm; 18 1/16 in x 3 5/8 in x 8 7/8 in

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Medicine

Microscopes

Science & Mathematics

National Museum of American History

Subject

Science & Scientific Instruments

Record ID

nmah_1172348

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-3096-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa