Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

    

Microscope 544 (C. Baker; student microscope; 1880s)

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The business of Baker was founded in London in about 1765, Charles Baker, who was born in 1820, giving his name to the company from about 1851. When Charles Baker died in 1894 the firm continued under the same name but run by the Curties family until it became, in 1936, Charles Baker & Co. and subsequently, sometime in the 1940s, C. Baker Ltd. The firm’s address mostly given as 244 High Holborn, London (but sometimes 243 and 245, sometimes in combination). The firm produced optical and surgical instruments. In 1963, Vickers acquired the C Baker Ltd microscope factory and a new company called Vickers Instruments was formed. Microscope 544 is signed with ‘Baker, 244 High Holborn, London’, being dated to the 1880s. The instrument is a student microscope and was featured in the 1883, 1886 and 1890 editions of Hogg’s book ‘The microscope: its history, construction and application’ (Figure 1).

 

Figure 1. Baker’s student microscope as featured in the 1883, 1886 and 1890 editions of Hogg’s book ‘The microscope: its history, construction and application’