Microscope-Related United States Patents: 1853-1915

Microscope manufacturing in America began in the 2^nd quarter of the 19^th century. Before that time, the few microscopes that were available in this country were imported primarily from France and England.^{1, 2} As mentioned by Gage,¹ the first American microscope manufacturer of commercial significance was Charles A. Spencer (1813-1881). His first microscope was produced around 1838. His earliest stands were similar to those made by the French maker Charles Chevalier and those of the English maker Andrew Pritchard.³ However, later in the century, the Spencer firm, along with several of the other newly established American manufacturers, began to offer instruments having a more distinct American style. Many of these newer instruments incorporated important innovations. As might be expected, some of these innovations were perceived to have commercial value and, accordingly, patents applications were filed with the United States Patent Office to protect these inventions. For collectors and historians of antique microscopes, these early U.S. patent documents are a valuable source of information. For this reason, the listing of issued U.S. patents presented herein was prepared. The majority of these patents were granted to American inventors, although a number of foreign inventors also filed patents in the U.S.. Both kinds of patents are included. The list contains microscope-related U.S. patents that were issued between the years 1853 to 1915. These patents were identified in a search of a commercial database that indexed the full text of patents granted since 1836. Because of a fire at the U.S. patent office in 1836, patent documents created prior to that time no longer exist. However, a listing of patent titles and the names of the inventors for patents granted in the years 1790-1829 has been reconstructed from other sources.⁴ A search of both this list and the commercial database showed that there were no microscope-related patents granted prior to 1853. It was decided to restrict the listing to those patents issued before 1916.

The list below includes the inventor's name, patent title, patent number, issue date, a brief description of the significance of the invention, and, where known, the firm to which the patent was assigned. The list is sorted based on the patent number and issue date. On an alternate page, the list can be viewed along with the patent drawings.

For each entry, the patent document can be downloaded by clicking on the patent number. You will need to have the free Adobe Acrobat reader installed on your computer to access these documents (download it here). Clicking on the patent number will open the document within a browser window. Alternatively, when using Windows, you can download the file to your computer by right clicking and choosing 'Save Target As' from the popup menu.

1. Gage, S. H., Microscopy in America (1830-1945), Trans. Amer. Microscopical Soc., LXXXIII, No. 4, supplement, Chap IV, 27, 1964
2. Wheatland, D. P., The Apparatus of Science at Harvard 1765-1800, Harvard University 1969, 179-188.
3. Richards, O., Charles A. Spencer and his Microscopes. Rittenhouse, 2, 1988, 70-81.
4. List of all U.S. Patents and Patentees: 1790 - 1829

Inventor

Title

Patent Number

Date

Comment

The Bausch & Lomb folding portable dissecting microscope.

A self-centering slide preparation turn-table with geared mechanism.

A slide preparation turntable as supplied with the Club microscope.

Additional non-indexed patents 1916-1922: