The Romance of the Microscope / An interesting description of its uses in all branches of science, industry, agriculture, and in the detection of crime, with a short account of its origin, history, and development

by C. A. Ealand

1. View taken with ordinary camera. The arrow shows the building illustrated in the plate below; it is 3/4 mile away.

2. The building indicated by the arrow in the plate above, taken from the same standpoint through the micro-telescope.

Apart from any other consideration, the super microscope marks a big advance from the fact that it possesses great “depth of focus.” It is possible, for example, with this remarkable instrument to examine a moss as it grows, with a high magnification and see not a portion of a leaf or a fragment of the stalk, as with the ordinary microscope, but the whole upstanding plant, in stereoscopic relief. It shows us objects exactly as we should see them were we endowed with super eyes, enormously enlarged, in relief and erect. Objects viewed through this instrument are not inverted, as with the ordinary microscope.

A is the microscope proper and is, in all respects, similar to the instrument with which we are familiar, except that its mirror and condenser have been removed. In the fitting provided for the condenser a second microscope is arranged.

This consists of a tube D, an objective F, an ocular C and an inner sliding tube E, the whole fits into the metal case B, G is a stage on which the object is placed and below G, if necessary, a condenser may be fitted.

The instrument owes its remarkable magnifying powers to the fact that the additional microscope B, forms a magnified image of the object on the stage G, at the opening in the stage of the microscope A. This magnified image is still further enlarged by the original microscope. In other words, the power of one microscope is employed on that of another.

The apparatus as we have described it gives enormous magnifications and it is possible, by using a suitable combination of objectives, to obtain a magnification of ten thousand diameters. Expressed in non-technical language, a circle whose actual diameter is equal to the thickness of the paper upon which these words are printed, could be so magnified by the super-microscope that it would appear to be as thick as ten thousand similar pieces of paper but, with this enormous magnification, it is obvious that, even with such a marvellous instrument, the whole of the circle from edge to edge could not be seen at one time. With an ordinary microscope a magnification of one thousand three hundred diameters is considered highly satisfactory. So that there is a great probability of being able to see some of the minute objects which are known to exist, but which have, up to the present, eluded those who would view them, on account of their minuteness. There is a possibility also of discovering a new underworld of which no man has yet dreamed. The man who uses his microscope solely because of the pleasure he derives from it, rather than he who uses it because it is essential to his business or profession, will be more attracted by the micro-telescope. By this we do not infer that the instrument is not useful, as a fact it is of the greatest importance in certain cases, especially for Nature-study work, for the observation of minerals and to the chemist.

Like its sister instrument, the micro-telescope consists of an ordinary microscope to which is attached a specially designed object glass in a tube, which take the place of the condenser. The makers, indeed, provide two of these object glasses—one for viewing objects from one to two feet away, the other for viewing objects from a distance of three feet to the planets, if need be. Once when the instrument was being tested some crumbs were placed on the floor at a distance of four yards and strongly illuminated, and the microscope with a 1-inch objective focussed on the crumbs. With this objective in an ordinary microscope the magnification would be about thirty diameters. Presently some mice came out, and made themselves at home with the crumbs. The mice could be examined at this distance, without their being aware of it, so well that individual hairs were easily visible and about half a mouse was in the field of view. In point of size each mouse appeared about the same as a beaver within a foot or two.