When is a toy stand more than a toy microscope?!

[charlie g]

Over a decade ago I eBay purchased a $49 USD "Heidelberg Research Microscope"...very heavy black enameled ..wooden case with thick brass shipping screw to stabilize stand during transport...monoc/binoc heads..four sets of oculars, skyblue , green, clouded , and yellow hue (?heat filter?) glass filters, 1.2 speced simple Abbe substage condenser, two surface substage mirror, solid and smooth function mechanical stage,,,stage slide clips...and more...sigh shipping $42 USD.

The 4X, 10X, 40X, 100 X "Oel" quadruple nosepiece a set of obviously 'tiny toy objectives'. The metal plate on outside of wooden case is printed" Heidelberg Research Model"/ "Precision Optical Company". This does not seem German firm: Precision Optical Company...and yet the 'toy 100X objective is etched: "Oel"...what does this imply, if anything?

Any thoughts or comment appreciated regards to 'target market ' for this stand...all components heavy netal..the views of my fixed diatom slide are sweet. Is this a 'student microscope'...then why the 'tiny toy objectives..rather than 45mm DIN objectives? thanks for any comments, any opines, Charlie guevara

[charlie g]

I sense a lot of good metal work in fabrication of this stand...when is a 'toy microscope' more than a toy? I would have loved and used this stand when I was 10years of age..the 'really toy' microscope I then had gave me worlds of exploration..yet was so inferior to this 'toy stand'. Charlie guevara

[einman]

OEL=oil immersion

Why are you calling this a "toy" stand? It does not look like a toy.

[einman]

the 45 DIN objectives came later. These objectives do not look too dissimilar to other models of the time.

[Micro-Bob]

Thank you for showing this interesting instrument!
I live in Germany but have never seen such a microscope on german ebay or elsewhere. Heidelberg is an old university city but I don't think that there ever was an optics company in Heidelberg. The stand looks much more like american BL stands than like a german stand. I guess that it is a copy made in Japan. How would you describe the optical and mechanical quality? Is it more a toy or a real instrument?
You speak of tiny objectives - do these have a smaller thread than RMS?
A picture with a scale an a normal Microscope beneath it would be nice!

[MichaelG.]

Thanks to the magic of the internet ... I've just found this [2011] advertisement for a similar item:
https://www.astromart.com/auctions/deta ... on_id=6456

It looks rather more than a toy.

MichaelG.

[apochronaut]

Beginning in the 1950's, Japan produced a lot of equipment destined for markets in North America and Europe that had design or nomenclature built into them, that were intended to imply things about the product that were everything from a stretch of the truth, to outright lies. Usually, they got a hold of some object or set of objects made in the target market and copied some aspect of it, or the entire object itself and often as well would apply some glorious adjective to the object, in order to enhance it's marketability. A classic example were their splintery shelled drums, with stencil badges copied from Slingerland, most of which stated boldly: World's Supreme Quality. Well who could argue with that? It is a judgement, and many of the 12 year old boys that received such a 149.00 kit from Sears for Christmas felt the same about them....for a while anyway. Sometimes but not very often, they actually improved on the original. Most people are aware of some of their grander efforts, cameras, drums and guitars, all of which are now considered world class.
One of the notable clues, of the country of origin, is in the wood used and in the case of this microscope it would be the cabinet. Japan has few timber resources but as an expanding economy with increasing international sales, they could easily buy timber from less well developed economies, nearby. Japan was ruthless in exploiting the Luan and Tiama forests of the Philippines. Is the cabinet made from Luan, a splintery looking wood superficially resembling and sometimes called mahogany, which it isn't ? Sometimes, inexplicably, a cabinet or drawers will be made of a harder ash like wood but mostly Luan was the species.

The general design and certain details of your instrument, like the knobs on the xy and the fine focus can be found on other instruments with different brand names but all made in Japan. Larger stands branded with the very common Tasco, of a marketing company out of MIami, have bodies , binocular tubes, horseshoes and even objectives, identical to your microscope. Tasco microscopes were mostly made by Carton Optical but certain aspects of the design of the better ones; student and even professional lab scopes seem more Kyowaish or Tiyodaish. The fact that your scope is called Heidelberg and states "oel" on the objective, only means that the marketer that it was was made for, sought to deceive the buyer into thinking that it was a German microscope. It is important to understand that just as is the case with Chinese microscopes now, in the 50's, 60's and well into the 70's; most Japanese product was of the stencil brand type. Any marketing agency or distributor could have anything they wanted that was legal in their country put on an off the shelf Japanese product. It was an across the board, Japanese marketing policy. Pearl drums, which now is a significant player in the professional music industry, at one time made instruments with at least 50 different stencil brands on them. It was a very busy factory.

Carton Optical did about the same number and you hardly ever see anything with the brand Carton on it. Sometimes, lately. They made microscope objectives in 3 maybe 4 sub R.M.S. sizes. The larger of the 3, with a 19mm thread were very good and appeared on some serious student grade and small lab stands. They are fully as good in all ways as average, R.M.S. objectives with good resolution and standard N.A.s. Probably, only the potential f.o.v. suffers, something not considered that important in such microscopes, so it would have been a cost saving measure to put cheaper small objectives on the microscope, without sacrificing quality too much. Possibly, the entire optical path is smaller too, another cost saving measure. The other sizes appeared exclusively on toy and hobby microscopes; 15mm and 17mm and I think there was a 16mm as well. I own both a Tasco and a Selsi hobby scope that have identical or very similar objectives to yours. The Tasco has an identical stage.
As an aside , I contacted Carton Optical in the early 1990's enquiring as to whether they could supply, an R.M.S. apochromat with an iris diaphragm. I was actually asking if they made such a thing and the answer I got was. Yes, we can make apochromat with iris diaphragm. How many thousand, would you need? Clearly, their minimum production was around 1000.

Is not the word Japan stamped on the focus block, above the coarse focus pinion?

[charlie g]

Thank you thank you fellow microscopists and sharing forum members! Hear, hear to all your helpful comments:

Micro-Bob ' danke ' for prompting me to unbox this err..step child in my family of stands to compare it's objectives to an RMS 34 mm ('shorty barrel objectives') vintage stands objectives. Sure enough, it's RMS and not the smaller thread Japan Tiyoda size objectives. To my DIN 45mm accustomed eyes..I thought it 'tiny toy' due the 'sort of cheap feel metal (?aluminum?)' objectives.

And yes, Micro-Bob, the views (small field of view compared to my DIN stands) of fixed diatom slides are quite acceptable to my visual observations with it in this weeks 'first light for me', of this curious product. The mechanical stage, the substage rack and pinnon control, all smooth and responsive...the simple Abbe condenser simply etched: "1.2"...this indeed a good student stand in my opinion..and I'm spoiled on better stands these days.

Einmam..your right as rain..it is only the cheap aluminum feel of the objectives which led me to (yet again in forums!) put my foot in my mouth...these are standard RMS 34mm 'shorty barrel' objectives. A blur from toy to quite adequate student stand ( I think of all the North American hand illustrated microscopy studies Joseph Leidy produced regarding the native protozoa this side of the pond...Dr.Leidy would have rejoiced at access to this stand!).

Michael G., the apt and direct assistance you give to me in numerous recent microscopy querries of mine..your link to a defective one of these stands in an astronomy community webplatform...it makes me feel wonderful! The 2011 chap wants $92 USD, he admits his stand is defective...he mentions the incredible weight and $42 USD shipment range.. My earlier eBay acquisition was about $40 less..for an intact and functioning system. Anbody interested in purchase of this student stand from me...heh, heh?!

Thank you Phil/apochronaut...yup..I have numerous student stands with this type of wood case...you now give me a good idea of the type of wood and the forests the wood from. I years ago noted that a low cost Nikon 60X, 160 TL, no correction collar objective I purchased cheap from our NY/US Nikon distributor for only $45 new/clearance...(all black objective with white label: Nikon)...came with a tiny and all too easily detachable gum label:"made in China" attached to the barrel as if it was intended to be removed..and this label came off by itself.

Your insights to post war Japan manufacture posture, Phil, has me recall the work of ? US Edwardsl Deming...and his almost single person mission of quality improvement cycle for Japan production and economic post WWII recovery. I can not find:"Japan" printed anywhere on this stand, Phil, and it is excellent exercise to lift it up to observe the bottom of the stands horseshoe base..but indeed you pegged the circumstances and time frame of this stands production ( thank you Edwards Deming).

So here,,like my Monolux student stands, and other near to toy stands I have collected..I let my fingers tactile response to cheap feel aluminum objectives...stear my thinking that this student stand a toy. Charlie guevara

[apochronaut]

In your 6th picture, Charlie g., which looks down on the arm and focusing knobs from above, there is a little brushed chrome space, forward of the serial # 334. It is, I think, the top of the focus block. There is a word written there, which when I magnify it, gets no clearer but it looks awfully close to the word Japan.

[charlie g]

Wow, apochronaut, with a magnifying glass to my computer screen...I stand corrected on this stand..'Japan' is strongly suggested as the etched info! Thanks for you fleshing out the circumstances of this student stand, Phil. I can't appreciate enough the comedy of the imprinted metal spec: " Oel" on this aluminum 100X objective...such a token into the post war Japan manufacturer posture.


Charlie guevara

[billbillt]

Yep, Japan it is.. How is the image?.. I would bet it is good..

[einman]

Phil- Awesome ...Sherlock Holmes of microscopes! Once again your historical narrative amazes me.

[apochronaut]

Looking at the stand more closely, I am pretty sure it is exactly like a Tasco binocular microscope I have sitting under a cover, which currently resides at another house. In this case the 100X objectives are crudely stamped Tasco on one side with OIL 100 1.25 on the other side. They are brushed chrome on brass and are a fairly substantial R.M.S. , J.I.S. 36mm parfocal body. I also have a Kyowa binocular from the same vintage and the objectives, although very similar in construction , are not the same, bearing slightly different tooling and a markedly different exit diaphragm. They are marked Kyowa Tokyo, with each word nestled into one half of the image of a positive doublet on one side and a serial # below. On the other side it says HI 100 1.25.

In looking at your posted pictures of the 10 0.25 and the 40 0.65, the design and even the sort of font used on your objectives, seems identical to those of my Tasco's. I will post pictures of the Tasco, when I retrieve it. I'm pretty sure your instrument was made by Carton. I believe they have moved their factory to Singapore but they are still going strong and are the makers of any Singapore made components, used by Olympus, probably others too.


As far as castings go. Carton seemed to use various styles of castings, especially of the horseshoe. I suspect that they did not make the castings, rather they, as well as other companies used the services of a dedicated casting foundry. For this reason, some of Carton's horseshoes resemble the sculptured elegance of a Tiyoda horseshoe, yet others are more plain and blocky. It may have been a case of fitting a run in on the tail end of another, in order to save money, or taking what might have been on hand. Also, some are aluminum and some cast iron. Carton, was definitely in the business of giving the best bang for the yen.

[billbillt]

This about sums it up...

http://www.cricketsounds.net/