Description

A good example of Raes microscope in is original case. Instrument 2.75″; case 3″. Microscope-Antiques.Com notes the following. (N.B.: Our example is painted to represent an exotic wood other than rosewood.) Thanks to J.Z.,MD  for helping me ID this instrument.

 MICROSCOPE-ANTIQUES.COM 

“RAE’S MICROSCOPE (ORIGINAL FORM):c. 1867 to 4^th QUARTER 19^th C.

This cylinder-type pocket microscope is opaque except at the ends. It measures 74 mm (almost 3 inches)high, and the barrel is 30 mm in diameter. The end pieces are of lacquered brass and screw on. The brass barrel is painted to simulate rosewood. On the top of the inside barrel, under the eyepiece cap, is a glass disc onto which the specimen is placed. Housed inside the eyepiece is a small bead lens which was made by melting a glass rod. In use, after the subject is placed on the glass disk, the eyepiece cap is screwed down onto it to reach focus. The other endcap has a 4 mm aperture in its center without glass. The instrument is housed in a crudely made pasteboard box painted black.

The earliest reference I have been able to find was in the form of a short testimonial letter published in 1867 in the English Mechanic and Mirror of Science and Art. This microscope was apparently quite popular. It continued to be sold, including some variations, as is illustrated by the advertisement to the left, into the last quarter of the 19th century, and perhaps beyond. C. S. Rae who were ‘manufacturing opticians and embossers of steel…’ were still operating in 1883.”