infocus #3 September 2006 Photomicrography through a Culpeper-type Microscope

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.9

Modern microscopes that are used in so many important aspects of medical research can trace their development back to the inspiration of pioneers well over three centuries ago, and to many subsequent developers. The optics and mechanical arrangement of the Culpeper-type instrument discussed here were developed in the first half of the 18th Century. The microscope is based on the compound design of Edmund Culpeper, who made a variety of scientific instruments during his lifetime
in the 18th Century but whose name is now firmly associated with the early days of commercial microscopy. The objective properties of our particular specimen and how they were measured have been described by Reid (submitted). The present paper presents photomicrographs taken through this microscope and comments on the quality of the images.