A vintage telescope-microscope gadget! |
Fig. 1: A telescope microscope combination instrument of unknown make. Estimated age: possibly produced in the 1920s or 1930s? The eye-piece is place in the center of the front end (on top in the figure). The objective is on the opposite side of the housing, in a decentral position. The small milled wheel close to the objective actually works as a two position switch in order to chose among telescope and microscope function. The focus wheel is barely visible in the figure, being positioned one the right hand base side of the housing (cf. also fig. 2). The instrument's walls are made of nickel plated brass. And of course there is a leather sheath protecting your precious gadget. Dimensions are ca. 60 mm x 45 mm x 20 mm, weight (without sheath) 84 g. |
The telescope function is quite usable -
just because the magnification is not overdone (approximately 3x). So even the
elderly microscopist will be able to cope with it. Furthermore it has a favorable
close-up distance of ca. 50 cm which comes in handy when looking into museum displays
or on butterfly wings. Besides it may serve as a spectacles' replacement for the elderly naturalist.
To sum up it is much more attractive than one of those nasty "8x20" pocket telescopes
sold by discounters nowadays. |
Fig. 2: The interior of the telescope microscope combination ist beautiful to look at. It has the charm of small series craftswork, with some rasp scratches, a few decent marks for saw work and a fully reversible combination of components. The focus function is working internally, preserving the outer geometry, just by modifying the distance between the two 180° prisms. The microscope function is kind of switch-added by means of a small doublet lens in black fitting (on the right side in the image). |
|
© Text, images and video clips by
Martin Mach (webmaster@baertierchen.de). |