Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

Rocking microtome from Cambridge Scientific Instrument from c. 1922

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Rocking microtome from Cambridge Scientific Instrument from c. 1922 (Figure 1). The instrument is engraved with ‘The Cambridge and Paul Instrument Cº Ltd., London and Cambridge, C43765’. The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company was founded in 1878 by Horace Darwin (1851 – 1928) and Albert Dew-Smith (1848 – 1903) to manufacture scientific instruments. Designed around 1885, the rocking microtome was one of Darwin's most successful designs which continued to be manufactured until the 1970s. In 1920, the company took over the R.W. Paul Instrument Company of London and became The Cambridge and Paul Instrument Company Ltd. The name was shortened to the Cambridge Instrument Company Ltd. in 1924 when it was converted to a Public limited company. In 1968, the firm merged with George Kent Ltd. The merger signalled the end of the company in its original form. It was reorganised into four divisions, and these were eventually sold off separately.

 

 

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Figure 1. The Cambridge rocking microtome as pictured in a 1900 advert of the company.

 

LAST EDITED: 05.05.2021