This rare device was manufactured under the number 142,456, on March 1, 1912 by Leitz for the Imperial College of Science & Technology in London, ICST, which is now the Imperial College of London. It belonged to the RSM Metalurgical Laboratory, inventoried under number 374 and is in perfect condition. It measures 35 cm. High. It has a rigid, non-tilting shaft, which ends in a black enamelled horseshoe foot. Its stage is square, fixed and without a hole for the passage of light since the lighting it uses is incident.

Its coarse focusing is done by a “reverse focus” mechanism by lifting the stage by a rack engraved on the back of the support shaft. Fine focusing is achieved by means of a horizontal wheel located on the axis of the apparatus. The illumination system for the metal sample that is placed on the stage is by incident light. It is generated by electrical system or acetylene light. It enters the apparatus through the horizontal tube that is placed over the objective. A magnifying glass with an articulated arm concentrates the light beam through a polarization prism, located over the central hole of the tube. These two pieces (fig. 4) are missing from the appliance. The ray is reflected on the sample and finally the image reaches the eye of the observer. It has a cherry wood case with two eyepieces and three numbered objectives: 2,6,7.

Bibliographic references.

  1. a) Elemental chemical microscopy. Fig. 48. Leitz Metallurgical Microscope, described on page 86.
  2. b) Stead J., WorkShop microscopes. J. Roy. Micro. Soc. 1909, 20, 22.
  3. c) Tassin, The Microstructure of Cast Steels, J. Ind. Eng. Chem. 1913.5, 713.
  4. d) Metallography applied to inspection, J. Ind. Eng. Chem., 1914,6, 95.