The Great Age of the Microscope: The Collection of the Royal Microscopical Society Through 150 Years

In 1839, the great age of the microscope was just beginning. The instrument rapidly became an essential tool in medicine and many branches of science, and the Royal Microscopical Society brought together practitioners from the different disciplines through a shared interest in the development of the microscope, as it still does today. The Great Age of the Microscope combines a historical account of the development of the Royal Microscopical Society, a leading scientific society, with a catalogue of its remarkable collection of over 450 microscopes and accesories. Some rare and interesting instruments date back to 1700, though the majority are representative of the Victorian era. Many from the Victorian era are prototypes, or instruments first off the production line, acquired by the Society as the London makers vied to market improved designs. Particularly well represented are the superb microscopes of Powell & Lealand. With 600 illustrations, the detailed descriptions of the instruments include notes on inventors and designers, and references to books and journals of the period. The various types of microscope are introduced in general terms, and their design features assessed. One chapter deals with the world trade in microscopes during the second half of the nineteenth century, when an estimated one million instruments were manufactured. Published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the RMS, The Great Age of the Microscope will prove an invaluable reference source for historians, academics, collectors, dealers and auctioneers.

"... This catalogue is the foundation on which future historians of the microscope can build securely, and it is a format which other cataloguers of scientific instruments can follow with profit." -- British Journal for the History of Science

"... unquestionably one of the most comprehensive and well-documented catalogues of a collection of scientific instrumentation, and the best source now available on microscopes of the period covered, will become a required reference for historians, museum curators, dealers and collectors for many years to come." -- Journal of History of Collections

"It is traditional for a reviewer to find fault with the work under consideration: in this case the author has carried out his task in such a comprehensive and scholarly manner that this is almost impossible." -- Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society