Vintage W. Watson & Sons Ltd - Edinburgh-H Brass Microscope

Description: Watson Edinburgh-H circa 1931 serial no. 48217 Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE This listing is for an interesting example of Watson's Edinburgh Student's Stand-H model microscope in brass - it's a late model example and dates to 1931 based on its serial number 48217 - with some degree of restoration - see full listing. The Edinburgh pattern model of microscope was produced by Watson between 1887 and around 1945; its long production run giving us a firm clue regarding just how good this model of microscope was in its heyday and over that long production cycle Watson regularly updated and improved the model, so what you see here is a late example with the final iterations of design and development for this model. For example it's got the later more upright brass tripod, the stage is now integral to the limb and tailpiece, the rotating plate to the top of the stage has been dropped as has the useful feature of the mirror on a swinging support arm and there's now double-sided height control for the sub-stage. The Edinburgh stand was originally developed by Watson in collaboration with a professor and lecturer in bacteriology at the University of Edinburgh, hence the Edinburgh designation. With its signature rear cross-member giving that classic "H" look and nice lacquered brass-work, the Edinburgh H is a fine example of British optical engineering with a design and style essentially dating back to the Victorian era. Turning to the technical details, the instrument stands on a black-painted (with some signs of part re-painting) cast tripod foot with twin uprights supporting the pivot, with tension lever adjustment and Lister-limb arrangement. The coarse focus is via rack and pinion with good smooth action that holds in position on adjustment. Fine focus is operated via a separate brass thumb-wheel located at the rear of the upper limb which operates an internal lever system acting against sprung resistance. The focusing technique being to achieve near focus with the coarse thumb-wheels, then fine-tune with the single rear thumb-wheel, which only has a fairly small range of movement via its vernier screw mechanism. With the optics, this Watson microscope comes fitted with a period graduated chromed eyepiece draw-tube inside a brass main optical tube that's been refinished in black to match the rest of the instrument and there's a useful set of vintage eyepieces that with adequate illumination produce very good images: - 6x magnification - 10x magnification - 15x magnification It's also got three period objectives and a Watson triple turret in black, which rotates freely with a nice positive feel as the objectives align to the viewing position. The objectives are as follows: - 2/3rds inch in brass - No. 3 Watson - 10x magnification - 1/6th inch in brass - Watson - 40x magnification - 1/12th inch Versalic - Watson - 100x magnification and oil immersion is required (the objectives all have brass canisters) Overall therefore, the range of magnification available with this Watson ranges from about 60x with the lowest power lens combination, up to around a theoretical 1,500x with the highest power combination, good illumination and oil immersion when using the Versalic objective. Being a late model Edinburgh-H, the upper limb design has an extended tail-piece to which are attached the stage and the sub-stage fittings. The fully mechanical stage is an original Watson design in brass with twin thumb-wheel adjusters on the right hand side of the stage that have a nice feel and give excellent x/y sample movement. It's fitted with its original brass specimen clips for holding slides steady during inclined viewing and when the axes are being moved around. The freely running x/y controls also offering fine control of specimen positioning, which is a real advantage for higher magnification work. The y-axis also holds position on inclination. Turning to the sub-stage, we have a Watson Abbe-type condenser top-mounted to a ring carrier with centering controls comprising brass thumb-screws, which sits in a height adjustable rack and pinion mount with double-sided brass thumb-wheels to adjust the condenser height and usefully, there's sufficient reach for the condenser to be oiled to the back of a slide as required for higher magnification work. The condenser assembly also has a smooth working iris to control lighting levels and there's a 35mm recess directly above the iris intended for adding filters as shown in the listing photos (note: filters are not included in the listing and are shown for demonstration purposes only). Lighting is via a plano-concave mirror on a rotation/height-adjustable brass support rod with gimbal giving good adjustability, with period silvering that's in reasonable period condition to both sides, with some losses but reflectivity that's still fine. The instrument's controls and friction surfaces have been very lightly lubricated and operate smoothly and there's very little in the way of age-related signs of wear to all moving parts such as coarse focus, fine-focus, eyepiece draw-tube, mechanical stage, condenser rack/dovetails and plano-concave mirror. This instrument presents well showing a few signs of tarnishing or spotting to its brass-work and paint finishes that have been restored in part as described previously. On the whole, the instrument is in decent shape for an inter-war example of an Edinburgh H model. It also presents really well while being used as a desk-top instrument and will also display rather nicely in a library or home office setting, especially when set up with an antique slide. There's an original Watson storage case with this example, with leather carry-handle that's in good condition, internal lens rack and there's also a working lock and key for the case which is always nice to have. Owing to the weight and delicacy of this antique Edinburgh-H microscope and its case, it will be partially dismantled, very well wrapped for shipping, fixed to its case with the a transit bolt and dispatched by insured courier upon receipt of cleared funds. Overseas buyers please use the eBay Global Shipping option if available for your territory, or contact seller for alternative shipping options and costs.Thanks for looking.

Price: 280 GBP

Location: Glasgow

End Time: 2025-01-04T23:53:32.000Z

Shipping Cost: 115.45 GBP