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43 Wilson Screw-Barrel Microscope

This simple (single-lens) microscope was made at some time about the beginning of the 18th century. It was acquired by an amateur biologist, almost certainly a gentleman enthusiast, who lovingly placed his specimens in the ivory slides, each between a pair of mica covers held in by a brass retaining ring. If he made more than eight slides they have been lost. Then he described each of the slides on the paper, which I found rolled up in the box. Only the first five descriptions remain in his neat and educated script.

What is so satisfying is to be able to guess the social context of the ;instrument and to imagine the collector at work.

A transcription of the paper found with the microscope describing the contents of the ivory slides:

A List of Objects

1	Leg of a moth A Bug A Flea A Louse
2	Wing of a moth Do of a bee Do of a cockroach Do of a stonefly
3	Weeping willow Virgins bower Elm root Ash
4	Scale of a perch Do of a dace Do of a cod Do of a bleak
5	Farina of Sun flower Seed vessels of sorrel Wing of a butterfly

Collection: John Lawrence, U.K.

The London instrument maker James Wilson (fl.1702-1710) described his version of the screw-barrel microscope in 1702.

See: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Volume 23, London 1702, pp. 1241-1247.

P.D.

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