Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

    

Microscope 429 (Charles Baker; Biolux II electric microscope; 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 429 is signed with C. Baker (London) and has the serial number 7697, being dated to the 1950s. It is an example of the Baker’s Biolux II electric microscope (Figure 1). There is a label of the retailer in the instrument which reads “Harding Scientific Instruments, 163 West Malvern Road, Malvern, Worcs.”. The instrument has its original wooden box.

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

 

 

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Figure 1. Baker’s Biolux II electric microscope as featured in a 1963 Flatters & Garnett’s catalogue.