My not-Nikon, not S mystery microscope

[Bemoc]

Here is one I recently acquired. I have very basic questions about it's functions and even it's type. Several basic condenser questions, wrtitten as photo captions here: https://imgur.com/a/ns7wbwl. Thanks for any answers you can give me.

[deBult]

Nippon Kogaku was rhe pre WW2 name used on Nkon products.

From Wikipedia: Founded on July 25, 1917 as Nippon Kōgaku Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha (日本光学工業株式会社 "Japan Optical Industries Co., Ltd."), the company was renamed to Nikon Corporation, after its cameras, in 1988. Nikon is a member of the Mitsubishi group of companies (keiretsu).

[Rossf]

I’ve got one of those and prefer it to the S cos no coaxial Focus to break from a split nylon cog-I actually prefer seperate course and fine focus knobs-mine has a housing body with field iris but yours will be a great starter scope-and fits all the later S accessories (phase turret!)
Good luck with it
Regards ross

[Rossf]

Oh and see you got the decenterable oblique condenser-very useful for bumping up definition a bit.

[Bemoc]

Hi Ross, I am happy not to have to worry about that nylon gear issue too, but for me the stage had to be flipped around or the mechanical stage controls blocked the fine focus. Now, though, I really have to find the right short barrel objectives in order to clear the slide mover itself. I got it from a woman who used it in her medical practice then tucked it away 30 years ago. It had Officine Galileo optics. Every one of her three objectives looks like the tips were ground off, probably from hitting the slide mover over and over again.

What objectives do you use, thanks for telling me what kind of condenser I have (now to find out what it does), may I know what the serial number on yours is, and do you call yours a model S, or a model K, or...?

[BramHuntingNematodes]

Abbe condensers have two lenses. Aplanat condensers have three. Achromatic condensers have more.

[Bemoc]

Thank you, and I had deduced that I have an achromatic one because it has 1.25 printed on it and all of the brochures listing the various Nikon condensers of then list 1.25 as achromatic, every other kind is different. But I do not know if I am right or what that means or what to do with the decenterable sliding thing. Ugh, newbies, right?

[Greg Howald]

It is obvious as we go back in time concerning the development of the microscope that the growing pains were difficult and many times produced somewhat crude results, especially since only thirty years ago the metals used were thick and heavy, the light bulbs were incandescent and rather large, all of which ate up space very quickly. I'm assuming that the base which holds the illuminator is in a fixed position and that you turn the illuminator itself to lock it in place. I wonder if you were able to rotate the base locking mechanism so that all of that extra hardware where the power cord attaches was in a different position, maybe facing forward. That might give more room for focussing and such.
I wonder if that thing which slides in and out of the bottom of the condenser might provide a means for oblique lighting.
Looking at the pictures of the scope makes me wish I could have a hands on experience with it to find answers and solutions. Good luck with it.
Greg Howald