Back Button

MICROSCOPE-ANTIQUES.COM     © 2013-19.




HARDNESS TESTER FOR USE WITH MICROSCOPE

MAKER: SPENCER

c. 1945

DATES of PRODUCTION: 1920's to 1950's(?)

SIGNED:'MICROCHARACTER, American Optical Co, Buffalo 15, N.Y., Made in U.S.A.'

microcharacter

MICROCHARACTER MOUNTED ON MICROSCOPE AS SHOWN IN THE ORIGINAL 1926 PATENT:
This is an image similar to the one in the patent. When in use, in addition to the microcharacter itself, the essential components are a vertical illuminator, a microscope, a high power oil immersion objective, cedar oil for lubrication during the test, which could I suppose serve also as immersion oil, and a 15X or higher magnification eyepiece micrometer. When offered for sale in the Spencer 1924 catalog, it was sold as a package with a filar micrometer and electric vertical illuminator, rather than the non-electric illuminator and simpler micrometer pictured here. Later, when sold in the 1940's these accessories were no longer part of the package but were offered separately. In fact, at that later time, the Microcharacter was not even designed to be mounted on the stage, but rather on its own leveling table.