Nose-pieces and Objective Changers.
A convenient appendage to the microscope is the rotating nose-piece, invented by Mr. Charles Brooke, F.R.S., and intended to carry two or more objectives, whereby a saving of time is effected, and the trouble of repeatedly screwing and unscrewing is avoided. In the application of the nose-piece attention should be given to centring. Messrs. Baker’s objective changer is intended to facilitate the placing and replacing the nose-piece in position. This adaptation consists of a milled head, acting on three jaws, having a universal screw thread, a decided improvement on the screw. Zeiss has adopted a tube-sliding objective changer with centring adjustments. Messrs. Watson met the difficulty of centring by making the nose-piece a part of the body-tube of their microscopes ([Fig. 163]). This, when adapted to the shorter body of the students’ microscope, fully compensates for want of length.
Fig. 163.—Watson’s Centring Nose-piece of Microscope.
Their triple nose-piece is constructed with much care, and when in use is found very effective. It is manufactured of that very light metal aluminium, and which minimises the strain produced by the heavier brass nose-piece.
Finders.—The finder affords a necessary and useful means of registering the position of any particular object, so that it may be readily found again at any subsequent period. In the work of examination the finder will save time when making a special research, extending over a considerable surface.
Fig. 164.—Triple Nose-pieces.
That the finder has been of use may be surmised from the number invented and figured in the “Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society.” By far the most useful form is that of graduating the plates of the mechanical stage, dividing a certain portion into 100 parts. Powell and Lealand have adopted this system in their No. 1 stands, while Baker and Watson have added a graduated scale on silver to 1⁄100th mm. as a finder, and also a stage micrometer in 1⁄10th and 1⁄100th of a millimetre, together with a Maltwood finder for lodging the position of any desired portion of a specimen under examination.
The Maltwood finder ([Fig. 165]) can be used with any microscope, and without a mechanical stage. This useful finder continues to occupy a permanent place among the accessories of the microscope. It consists of a glass slide, 3 × 1¼ inches, on which is photographed a scale occupying a square inch; this is divided by horizontal and vertical lines into 2,500 squares, each of which contains two numbers marking its “latitude,” or place in the vertical series, and its “longitude,” or place in the horizontal series. The scale is in each instance an exact distance from the bottom and left-hand end of the glass slide; and the slide, when in use, should rest upon the ledge of the stage of the microscope, and be made to abut against a stop, a simple pin, about an inch and a half from the centre of the stage.
Fig. 165.—Maltwood’s Finder.
Dr. Pantacsek’s finder appears to have some advantage over Maltwood’s, but it cannot be used with the same facility, and therefore will not displace an old favourite. The Amyot finder I have long had in use; it is efficient and inexpensive—can indeed, if misplaced or lost, be replaced by the aid of the square and compasses.
Fig. 166.—Amyot’s Object Finder.
The Okeden finder consists of two graduated scales, one vertical, attached to the fixed stage-plate, the other horizontal, attached to an arm carried by the intermediate plate; the first of these scales enables the worker to “set” the vertically-sliding plate to any determinate position in relation to the fixed plate, while the second gives the power of setting the horizontally-sliding plate by that of the intermediate.
Micrometers.—It is of the utmost importance to have a means of measuring with accuracy the objects, or part of objects, under observation. The most efficient piece of apparatus for the purpose is the micrometer eye-piece, the earlier form of which, Jackson’s, has been described under the heading Eye-pieces (p. 144). In the case of micrometers, as in that of most other accessories, every optician has his own adaptation and method of employing the same.
For the measurement of bacteria, a stage micrometer should be used with a camera lucida. The stage micrometer consists of a slip of thin glass ruled with a scale consisting of tenths and hundredths of a millimetre. The image is projected on to a piece of paper placed on the table, and the drawing made, and the object to be measured can be readily compared with the scale.
Fig. 167.—The Ramsden Micrometer Eye-piece.
In the Ramsden micrometer eye-piece, as previously explained, two fine wires are stretched across the field of an eye-piece, one of which can be moved by a micrometer screw. In the field there is also a scale with teeth, and the interval between them corresponds to that of the threads of the screw.
The circumference of the brass head is usually divided into one hundred parts, and a screw with one hundred threads to the inch is used. The bacterium to be measured is brought into a position in which an edge appears to be in contact with the fixed wire, and the micrometer screw is turned until the travelling wire appears to be in contact with the other edge. The scale in the field and scale on the milled head, together, give the number of complete turns of the screw and the value of a fraction of a turn in separating the wires.
In the micrometer eye-piece constructed by Zeiss, the eye-piece with a glass plate with crossed lines is carried across the field by means of a micrometer screw. Each division on the edge of a drum corresponds to ·01 mm. Complete revolutions of the drum are counted by means of a figured scale in the visual field.
In the micrometer used with Zeiss’s apochromatic objectives and compensating eye-pieces the divisions are so computed, that, with a tube-length of 160 mm., the value of one interval represents, with each objective, just as many micra (·0001 mm.) as there are millimetres in its focal length. A value of tables is therefore not required for these eye-pieces, since the focus of the lenses indicates their micrometer values within 5 per cent.
Fig. 168.—The Wollaston Camera Lucida.
The Camera Lucida will prove an extremely useful adjunct to the micrometer, and a large number of contrivances have been devised for its employment. There are those which project the image on to the surface of a sheet of paper provided for the drawing, and those which project the pencil and paper into the field of the microscope. The former method is that usually adopted. To draw an object, with either a Wollaston camera lucida or a neutral tint reflector, such as that of Beale’s, both of which are made to slide on and take the place of the cap of the eye-piece, as shown in [Fig. 168], with its flat side uppermost, the whole instrument must be raised until the edge of the prism is exactly 10 inches from a piece of paper placed upon the table; with the latter the instrument retains its vertical position, and the image of the object is thrown on the paper placed in front of the stand. The light must be so regulated that no more than is really necessary is upon the object, whilst a full light should be thrown upon the paper. Only one eye is to be used; and if one half of the pupil be directed over the edge of the prism, the object will appear upon the paper, and can be traced on it by a pencil, the point of which will also be seen. Should any blueness be visible in the field, the prism is pushed too far on, and should be drawn back till the colour disappears.
Fig. 169.—Microscope in position for drawing.
Fig. 170.—Beale’s Neutral Tint Reflector.
The position in which the microscope must be placed is shown in the accompanying illustration ([Fig. 169]).
Beale’s neutral tint reflector ([Fig. 170]) is much in use, and its advantages are utility, simplicity, and inexpensiveness.
Fig. 171.—The Abbe Model Camera Lucida.
The Abbe model of camera lucida has been brought into use because the projected image can be better illuminated, and is consequently so much brighter. This form is now made in aluminium by Messrs. Watson & Sons. In place of the image being traced by projection on paper, the reverse is the case, both the paper and pencil are projected into the field of view. The mirror reflects the paper on to the silvered surface of a prism placed over the eye-lens of the eye-piece of the microscope, and it is thereby conveyed to the eye. There is a central opening in the silvering through which microscopic vision is obtained. It is fitted in a new manner by means of a cloth-lined adapter, fitting over the outside of the microscope tube; this saves all trouble in centring and ensures concentricity. Where the instrument has capped eye-pieces, the camera lucida must be adapted to the eye-piece, the cap being removed. The apparatus can be disconnected from the fitting adapter by means of a sliding pin, and readily replaced, or can be lifted over out of the way, as shown in the drawing. Being made almost entirely in aluminium it is very much lighter than other forms of apparatus, and does not cause vibration. It can be used with the microscope at any angle, the only necessity being that the paper on which the sketch is made should be kept at the same angle as the instrument.