CAMERA FOR MICROSCOPE:
MODEL: 'GORDON'S APPARATUS FOR PHOTOMICROGRAPHY'
c.1910
MAKER: R & J BECK
DESCRIPTION:
This lacquered brass instrument has two main parts, the focusing tube and the camera. The third piece is a mechanism to lock the coarse focus of the microscope once the instrument has been properly focused. Lacking from this example is a yellow tinted filter on a stand to relatively limit the color of illuminating light; this would have been used with higher power photography to allow more accurate focusing, as the focus of the camera is arranged to be most perfect with that hue of light. This would not affect images taken with a focal length of 2/3 inch or greater, but when short focal lengths were to be used, the filter was highly recommended.
In use, the operator focuses the microscope with the focusing tube attached (above left), applies the focus clamp to prevent the weight of the tube and camera from changing the focus, and substitutes the camera (above right). Film is placed inside the round top which has a light-tight cap in advance of the photography. The shutter is pulled out to initiate the exposure, and closed to finish it.
HISTORY OF THE GORDON CAMERA
This camera was devised by J.W. Gordon, the author of many practical and theoretical papers about microscopy in the first decade of the 20th century. His camera was reported in the JRMS of 1903. Another example of this device is in the collection of the RMS, and pictured in Turner's Great Age of the Microscope (number 183, pages 183-184).
