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Microscope (detail)

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made in London

Microscope (detail)
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This photograph shows the signature of the retailer of a microscope made in London around 1830. The signature on the microscope stage reads: 'Britton / Barnstaple'.

In an effort to improve the optical characteristics of the simple microscope in the early 19th century, David Brewster (1781-1868) suggested that single lenses might be made from materials with a very high refractive index, such as diamond or sapphire, which would lesser the effects of spherical aberration, a fuzziness of the image caused by the spherical curvature of glass lenses. A few of these were made, but they were expensive to produce and difficult to manufacture.

The design of this microscope signed by William Britton of Barnstaple is illustrated by Brewster in his Treatise on the Microscope (Edinburgh, 1837), where it is described as the pre-eminent London microscope manufacturer, Andrew Pitchard's, stand for sapphire glasses: however, all the objectives are made of glass. Pritchard's co-worker on jewel lenses, C.R. Goring, retired to Devon some time before his death in 1840, which may explain the signature on this instrument.

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