'Stabifocal' Compound Microscope, by Marcel Locquin, Paris, c.1960 (MHS Record Details: IRN 5980, Inventory number 41523)

'Stabifocal' Compound Microscope, by Marcel Locquin, Paris, c.1960

Inventory Number:

41523

Object Type:

microscope

Persons:

Marcel V. Locquin (Designer)

Date Created:

c.1960

Place Created:

Paris France Europe

Subject Classification(s):

Microscopy

Accession Number:

1970-101/part

Brief Description:

The optics are incorporated into a casting painted pale green. The base has an egg-shaped outline with supports at each end that hold the stage. A port in one support allows light to be directed onto a forty five degree mirror below a substage condenser. The other support is in the form of a ribbed cylinder which, when turned, moves the assembly holding the optical tube to adjust the fine focus. The circular stage plate is can slide in any direction. Movement is restricted by a fixed disc beneath, that stops it over-running the optical path. The body tube has a rotating objective changer for six objectives. Focusing is by a collar that acts on rackwork on the side of the tube. The mount for the eyepiece is angled and contains a prism. It is aligned and secured by three screws.

The 'Stabifocal' was an innovative. modern microscope design that was not commercially successful and was produced for only a limited period in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was one of the many inventions of the French inventor, microscopist, and 'scientifique a tout faire' Marcel V. Locquin (1922-2009). Its manufacturer is not known, though the signature on this example implies that Locquin himself may have formed a company to make it. Gerard Turner's comment (catalogue no.230) is: 'Certainly innovative, this is an unpractical design that did not succeed'. It has been described as 'a microscope in "no man's land" ', because it was insufficiently sophisticated for the professional scientist while too 'ponderous' for the amateur. An article about it, including detailed illustrations and tests of its optical performance (based on another example in a private collection) can be found at:
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artmay12/mdc-stabifocal.pdf

Primary Inscriptions:

"STABIFOCAL LOCQUIN PARIS - FRANCE".

Provenance:

Lent by the Royal Microscopical Society in 1970. RMS collection.

Collection Group:

Royal Microscopical Society Collection

Material(s):

Metal

Dimensions: