# The Description of a Single Microscope; And of an Apparatus Applicable to the same, in order to make it a Solar Microscope, Which will equally serve for a Camera Obscura, And also for viewing Prints in Perspective, Greatly Improved for those Uses. By Edward Nairne, At the Golden Spectacles, Reflecting Telescope and Hadley’s Quadrant, in Cornhill, opposite the Royal Exchange, London. [French version:] Description d’un Simple Microscope; & des Machines necessaires a en faire un Microscope Solaire, qui peuvent servir egalement a faire une Chambre Obscure, & a l’Inspection des Estampes en Perspective **Autore:** Nairne Edward **Dati editoriali:** [London, Edward Nairne], n.d. [second half of the eighteenth century] **Codice archivio:** 191 **Prezzo:** 2000.00 USD **Stato commerciale:** Disponibile **Link ufficiale:** https://www.govirarebooks.com/products/nairne-single-microscope-1780 --- ## Descrizione accademica e analisi 8vo (211x124 mm). Two parts in one volume, in English and French, 8, 8 pp. with the final manufacturer’s advertisement folding leaf and one folding copper-engraved plate (loose). Original wrappers with the inked title “Microscope” on the front cover (without the spine, small portion of the front cover missing, worn, marginal tears). Slightly uniformly browned, some staining, small tear to the upper margin of the advertisement leaf. An illustrated bilingual instrument-maker’s publication uniting simple microscopy, solar projection, the camera obscura and the viewing of perspective prints. Rather than a general treatise on optics, Nairne’s pamphlet presents an adaptable apparatus whose components could be employed for several related purposes. Its title makes this versatility a central selling point: the microscope is not described as an isolated instrument, but as the starting point for a series of optical transformations. The distinction between ordinary microscopic observation and solar projection is particularly significant. Whereas a simple microscope presents an enlarged view to an individual observer, a solar microscope employs sunlight to project a magnified image into a darkened room. Observation thereby becomes potentially collective: the image can be examined and discussed by several spectators rather than seen successively through a lens. The additional applications announced in the title extend the publication’s interest beyond microscopy alone. The camera obscura and the viewing of perspective prints connect the examination of natural objects with the production and appreciation of optical images. These are related uses, not interchangeable operations; their conjunction nevertheless makes the pamphlet a suggestive document of the relationship between scientific observation and visual entertainment. Edward Nairne was a London maker of optical, mathematical and philosophical instruments whose activities also encompassed experimental electricity. Working in Cornhill, opposite the Royal Exchange, he combined commercial manufacture with technical innovation. He improved the portability of microscopes derived from the Cuff tradition, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1776, and patented an electrical machine for medical applications in 1782. His career exemplifies the overlap between skilled instrument-making and experimental natural philosophy. Surviving instruments provide a material counterpart to this printed activity. The Science Museum Group preserves a solar microscope with a screw-barrel objective, signed by Nairne and dated approximately 1770, in the Sir Henry Wellcome Collection. The present publication also belongs to an established tradition of London instrument-makers’ literature. In 1753 James Ayscough issued The Description of a Single Microscope; And of the Apparatus Adapted for the Solar Microscope, the Camera Obscura, As also for Viewing Prints in Perspective, Greatly Improved for those Uses. The close correspondence of scope and wording provides an important antecedent, including the claim of improvement. It places Nairne’s publication within an existing commercial and technical tradition. Printed descriptions were an important part of Nairne’s wider business. His other publications included instructions for electrical machines and a description of an equatorial telescope or portable observatory, published in 1771. Such works connected the construction of an instrument with its practical operation, making the accompanying text a means of communicating the maker’s expertise beyond his workshop. --- ## Bibliografia di riferimento History of Science Museum, Oxford, Library Catalogue, record 1967-215 (catalogued as “[London: s.n., 1780?]”; P. Heering, “The Enlightened Microscope: Re-enactment and Analysis of Projections with Eighteenth-Century Solar Microscopes”, The British Journal for the History of Science, 41, no. 3, September 2008, pp. 345–367, especially note 9, citing p. 4 of Nairne’s pamphlet; D.J. Warner, “Edward Nairne: Scientist and Instrument-Maker”, Rittenhouse, 12, no. 3, 1998, pp. 65-93; Science Museum Group, Collection Online, A600184, Solar Microscope with Screwbarrel Objective, signed Edward Nairne, c. 1770, Sir Henry Wellcome Collection. --- *Documento generato automaticamente dall'Archivio Govi Rare Books per finalità di ricerca e catalogazione.*