Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

Microscope 343 (assigned to Charles Baker; improved nature microscope; second quarter of the 20^th century)

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 343 is not signed but corresponds to an improved nature microscope from Charles Baker and can be dated to the second quarter of the 20^th century (Figure 1). Focus is by turning the main tube via a knurled brass outer casing. The magnification can be varied between 25 and 200 times. Baker’s Nature microscopes were first offered from about 1912, and the improved versions were first offered around 1919. These instruments were used mostly in universities, colleges and schools throughout the British empire and were the official model for most education authorities of the time.

Note: this instrument was kindly donated by Dave Levell (Pembrokeshire, Wales) in May 2023.

Figure 1. Baker’s improved nature microscope as illustrated in the 11^th edition of the Gallenkamp general catalogue (1939).