Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

Microscope 161 (C. Baker; Patholette microscope; 1960s)

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 161 is from Baker and this model was the forerunner of the famous Vickers’ Patholette microscope, with which shares many design features, and was one of the last produced by this company before they became part of Vickers. This instrument is featured in the 1963 catalogue of Flatters and Garnett, where it is designated as Baker’s student’s Patholette microscope (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Baker’s student’s Patholette microscope as featured in the 1963 catalogue of Flatters and Garnett

References

'Patholette' Binocular Microscope, by C. Baker, London, 1960s (http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/collections/imu-search-page/record-details/?TitInventoryNo=10350&querytype=field&thumbnails=on&irn=16458), last accessed on 31.12.2020

LAST EDITED: 26.01.2021