MICROSCOPE ACCESSORY STAGE

c. 1910.

ACCESSORY STAGE:
This stage is a bit of a mystery. Its exact purpose to date has eluded the author and many of his friends familiar with both old and new microscopes. It consists of a support which allows a wooden spool to be attached and then rotated. Inscribed on each spool is a line drawn in pencil. As the rotation of the knurled knob advances the spool, the pencil line is passed through exactly the same point. In other words, as the spool rotates, whatever subject is attached following this line, would be successively brought under the same point in the field of view. This suggests the possible use of this stage for examining something like thread. twine, rope or perhaps fabric. A more remote possibility is that the spools were to be used to hold a large number of three dimensional objects such as crystals, cemented along the line. Whatever is its true intended purpose, I have been unable to find any reference to this in the literature. It may be that this is a unique item, made by special order. It would not seem to have anything to do with the polarization set, as the latter would be used with transparent objects, unless crystals were to be mounted along the lines, but if this were the case this would seem to be a poor method of mounting them.