Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

Microscope 476 (Wild Heerbrugg; stereoscopic microscope M5; 1960s)

Wild had its origins in 1921, when three Swiss men (Heinrich Wild, Jacob Schmidheiny, and Robert Helbling) founded the company Heinrich Wild, Werkstätte für Feinmechanik und Optik in Heerbrugg. The first major product was the Theodolite Wild T2. In the early 1930s, Wild left the company and moved to Zurich. His old firm became Wild Heerbrugg in 1937. In 1987, the company merged with the optical firm Ernst Leitz GmbH of Wetzlar and was renamed Wild-Leitz AG in 1989. In 1990, the company became part of the Leica holding company. From 1996, Leica was divided gradually again into smaller units. Leica Camera AG was developed in 1996, Leica Geosystems AG in 1997, and Leica Microsystems AG in 1998. Microscope 476 is engraved on the body with “WILD, HEERBRUGG, SWITZERLAND” and “M5-62777”. The instrument should be dated to the 1960s. The M5 microscope started being produced in 1958 and was sold until 1989. The instrument could be purchased with a variety of bases (e.g., an incident light only, or incident and transmitted light base, like microscope 476), and hand rests for support when dissecting. The microscope has a metal protective dome that can be installed both for protection in the field, or on the research bench, and as a carry case. The instrument is also engraved with the acronym of a previous owner (U. N. S. A. ZOOL.), but it is unclear what the institution is.

Figure 1. WILD M5 stereoscopic microscope on incident light stand as featured in a 1960s catalogue of the firm.