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VARLEY LEVER MICROSCOPE AS DESCRIBED IN THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS, VOLUME 55, 1843-4

MAKER: CORNELIUS VARLEY

c. 1840's

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plate 3


Cornelius Varley was interested in studying living specimens. To this end, he designed and improved his lever stage controlled microscopes. His earliest versions used a stirrup-shaped control (see the page about the 'microscope for living objects' from 1831). He subsequently developed a lever stage controlled by a single understage lever as shown above, and later simplified and improved as shown on Dr de Groot's Varley microscope shown on this site. Varley reported and figured the microscope shown on this page in the Transactions of the Society of Arts, Volume 55, 1843-4. Varley had patented this mechanism earlier, in 1841. The Society of Arts awarded Varley a Gold Medal for this design.

See the Early Varley Microscope Page to see an actual example of the microscope described above from the collection of Dr Frank J. Belinskey. To read Quekett's description of this microscope, see this microscope on the Quekett description page.