Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

Microscope 113 (C. Baker; Biolux II electric microscope; 1950s)

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 113 is signed with C. Baker (London) and has the serial number 8652, being dated to the 1950s. It is an example of the Baker’s Biolux II electric microscope (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Baker’s Biolux II electric microscope as pictured in a 1964 Gallenkamp’s catalogue. The instrument was described as "VICKERS BIOLUX 2 MICROSCOPE", successors of Cooke, Troughton & Simms, Ltd. and C. Baker Instruments, Ltd.

References

Charles Baker (https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Charles_Baker), last accessed on 12.08.2020

Microscopio C. Baker. Nº 14378 c. 1950 (https://sites.google.com/site/coleccionguillermocrovetto/home/ingleses/c-baker-estudiante), last accessed on 15.08.2020

LAST EDITED: 22.08.2020