Withering-type botanical microscope, 1780
The “Withering-type Microscope” is named for its inventor, Dr. William Withering (1741-1799), an English physician and botanist who graduated with a degree in medicine 1766 in Edinburgh. Inspired by the taxonomical work and systematic classification of Carl Linnæus (1707-1778), Withering (1776) applied the Linnaean taxonomical system of classification to British plants in a seminal, two volume work, A Botanical arrangement of all the vegetables naturally growing in the British Isles. The earliest reference to a small botanical microscope of Withering’s design appeared in the first edition of this book. There, Withering indicated this microscope was developed for field dissections of flowers and other plant parts. While there is no surviving example of this exact design, close relatives of this type do exist, made either completely of brass or of ivory with brass pillars. Ivory models can be tentatively dated to 1776-1785, as by 1787 a newer model with a hollowed stage in an all-brass configuration already predominated. In turn, it was preceded by the brief appearance of a transitional brass model but with solid stage of ivory or horn (seen here). This version is extremely rare and must have been produced in very small numbers. By 1787 all these varieties were not recorded anymore in the literature.
Withering-type botanical microscope, 1780
The “Withering-type Microscope” is named for its inventor, Dr. William Withering (1741-1799), an English physician and botanist who graduated with a degree in medicine 1766 in Edinburgh. Inspired by the taxonomical work and systematic classification of Carl Linnæus (1707-1778), Withering (1776) applied the Linnaean taxonomical system of classification to British plants in a seminal, two volume work, A Botanical arrangement of all the vegetables naturally growing in the British Isles. The earliest reference to a small botanical microscope of Withering’s design appeared in the first edition of this book. There, Withering indicated this microscope was developed for field dissections of flowers and other plant parts. While there is no surviving example of this exact design, close relatives of this type do exist, made either completely of brass or of ivory with brass pillars. Ivory models can be tentatively dated to 1776-1785, as by 1787 a newer model with a hollowed stage in an all-brass configuration already predominated. In turn, it was preceded by the brief appearance of a transitional brass model but with solid stage of ivory or horn (seen here). This version is extremely rare and must have been produced in very small numbers. By 1787 all these varieties were not recorded anymore in the literature.
References: SML: A242712; Goren 2014.
References: SML: A242712; Goren 2014.
Prof. Yuval Goren's Collection of the History of the Microscope
The Baker Moginie-style traveling microscope is one of the first attempts to create a sturdy field microscope for professional use. It was designed by William Moginie in 1867 and manufactured by Charles Baker. It is described in Baker's 1868 catalog and is today frequently referred to as a Baker Mogine-style or more simply a Mogine microscope. J. Newton Tompkins described this field microscope in an 1867 article published in the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society entitled: "On a Travelling Microscope". It is also described and illustrated in Hogg's, "History of the Microscope" 6th ed. of 1867. The microscope was designed to be carried in a cylindrical telescope leather case. In 1870 Moginie designed a larger edition of this microscope, which is the type seen here. As it was common at this time for contemporary microscope makers to freely copy each other's work, Baker's newly designed field microscope was freely copied by others including John Browning, and J. Swift, the models of whom are also seen in this collection.
The larger Moginie is a substantial microscope, and this microscope (only with the addition of rack and pinion coarse focusing instead of the fine focusing mechanism) was used by pioneer British mycologist Dr. Mordecai Cubitt Cooke (1825-1914), for microscopic inspection of fungi. Cooke was the founder of the Quekett Microscopical Club and Club President from 1881 to 1883. He noted that he used this microscope for over 30 years to produce over 15,000 drawings. Cooke sold the Wisley Gardens instrument for 10 pounds to the Royal Horticultural Society a year before his death in 1914.
Mordecai Cubitt Cooke and his Baker-Moginie microscope
References: Whipple: 851; ; Billings: P. 53, Fig. 99, AFIP 49243-60-4713-32; Stevenson; Kreindler & Goren.
