Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

    

Microscope 190 (assigned to Buron; drum-like microscope No 4; mid-19th century)

A picture containing pot

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Nöel Buron was a Parisian maker of microscopes, and other optical and scientific equipment. Nöel took over his father’s business in 1818 and located in 21 Quai de la Cité, Paris, at the time of his acquisition. The Buron shop moved again during the mid-1820s and, by 1826, he was at 53 Rue Sainte Avoie. In the late 1830s the shop moved again to 10 Rue des Trois Pavillons. Nöel Buron retired and sold his business in early 1855 to Armand Charles Henri Lemaire and Henri Leiner, who continued the business under the name ‘Leiner and Company, successor of Buron’ until the late-1860s. By 1870 the business was acquired by J. Wemans and Co. Few microscopes are known to be signed by Buron, although several instruments were likely manufactured by Buron and retailed by other firms like McAllister and Co., of Philadelphia (USA), which operated under that name from 1836 until 1853. Others appear to have been sold by retailers such as Widdifield and Co., Boston (USA) (1838 until c. 1868), and Benjamin Pike Jr., New York (USA) (1843 until c. 1864). Microscope 190 is a drum-like microscope containing a rack and pinion focusing and wheel of apertures. This instrument is identical to the microscope model No 4 described in Buron’s catalogue from 1844 (Figure 1), being assigned to this maker and is probably dated to the mid-19th century. The same microscope (and image) appeared also in the catalogues of McAllister & Brothers (1855) and Negretti and Zambra (1859) (Figure 2).

 

Figure 1. Illustrations of drum-style microscopes from Buron’s 1844 catalogue, including a version with rack and pinion focusing and wheel of apertures named as microscope model No 4 (right).

 

 

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Figure 2. Drum-style microscope with rack and pinion focusing and wheel of apertures engraved in the catalogues of McAllister & Brothers (1855) (A) and Negretti and Zambra (1859) (B)

 

 

References

Joseph Charles Louis Buron, ca. 1760 - ca. 1830; Noël François Joseph Buron, ca. 1791 – 1856 (http://microscopist.net/Buron.html), last accessed on 01/07/2021

 

LAST EDITED: 25.07.2021