Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

    

Microscope 148 (C. Baker; Biolux; 1950s)

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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 148 is signed with C. Baker (London) and has the serial number 4957, being dated to the 1950s. It is an example of the Baker’s Biolux II microscope model, in this instrument using a mirror as source of light (Figure 1).

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Figure 1. Baker’s Biolux II microscope, using a mirror for illumination, as pictured in a 1960 Gallenkamp’s catalogue.

 

References

Charles Baker (https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Charles_Baker), last accessed on 12.08.2020

Microscopio C. Baker. Nº 14378 c. 1950 (https://sites.google.com/site/coleccionguillermocrovetto/home/ingleses/c-baker-estudiante), last accessed on 15.08.2020