Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the microscope has become the single most widely-used instrument in teaching and scientific research: it has an essential role in laboratories in fields as diverse as cell biology and art conservation.
But its position as an indispensable scientific instrument has not always been secure, and its use and development from the early work of Hooke and Leeuwenhoek in the 17th Century, to that of Abbe towards the end of the 19th Century, has not been a simple story of continous growth and uninterrupted development.
There have been blind alleys, weird and strange inventions, and opportunities for craftsmen to excercise their skills in making instruments which today excite our interest and admiration.
This story is the subject of this book, richly illustrated with colour photographs depicting many of the instruments in the Medical Historical Museum in Copenhagen.
Moreover, it includes detailed descriptions showing precisely how the instruments and their accessoroies were intended to be used, such that readers can fully understand and appreciate the complex and fascinating "Story of the Microscope".
Contents: The Drop of Water - The Compound Microscope in the 17th Century - The Simple Microscope in the 17th Century - The Culpeper Microscope - The Simple Microscope in the 18th Century - The Compound Microscope in the 18th Century and the Solar Microscope - The Advent of Achromats - Adolph Hannover and Søren Kierkegaard - Microscopes in Victorian England - The continental Microscope - Microscopy flourishes as never before - New times, new limits - Sources of Illustrations - Bibliography - Index of Persons.
Bound, full canvas, with a dust jacket. Large format: 22,5 x 30 cm. 2004. The book contains 256 pages with more than 200 illustrations: drawings, and colour photographies of the antique microscopes belonging to Medical Museion in Bredgade, Copenhagen.
Editors: Peter Evennett & Christopher Hammond. Translated by David Stoner.
Front cover shows: Powell & Lealand's microscope ‘No 1’ with binocular tube, marked with the date 1877. In front of the microscope are the Ramsden micrometer screw eyepiece and 6 objectives whose focal lenghts (in inches from left to right) are 1/8, 1/16, 1/2, 1/125 and 1/50. The focal lenght of the objective on the microscope is 1/6 inch. The height of the microscope in the vertical position is c 47 cm.
Back cover shows: Zeiss' large research microscope of 1898 commonly known as the ‘Jughandle’, fitted with Berger's micrometer screw for fine focusing. This microscope once belonged to F.C.C. Hansen, professor of anatomy, Copenhagen.
