Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

    

Microscope 405 (Prior; Stereomaster microscope; 1980s)

 

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WR Prior & Co Ltd was founded by Walter Robert Prior in 1919. The company was originally located at Eagle Street, Holborn, London and later at Devonshire Street, London. Little is known about the Company during this time and no records or catalogues exist as to when and why they began to produce microscopes under the Prior name. A WR Prior catalogue of microscopes and accessories dated 1950 gives the location of the office as Devonshire Street and the factory as Bishop’s Stortford, Herts., England, where manufacturing was carried out from 1942 to 1957. In 1947, Walter Robert Prior died at the early age of 55. The company relocated to a new factory at London Road, Bishop Stortford in 1956 and continued to produce and develop new microscopes. By 1960, Prior and Charles Perry merged but kept their separate names until about 1970. In 1978, WR Prior & Co Ltd was acquired by The Gwyndann Group of Companies and the name of the company was changed in 1979 to that of Prior Scientific Instruments Ltd. In 1981 Prior Scientific Instruments Ltd merged with James Swift and Son Ltd (founded in the mid-19th century). Fire at the Bishop Stortford factory in 1988 meant the company had to relocate to its present site in Fulbourn, Cambridge, England, offering precision mechanical engineering, optics, electronics and precision assembly. Expanding its operation further the company opened a new office in 1991, Prior Scientific Inc, based in the USA, in 2008 Prior GMBH in Jena, Germany, in 2010 Prior KK in Tokyo, Japan and in 2018 Prior China. Microscope 405 is a stereomaster microscope (Figure 1), with illuminator, labelled with “PRIOR, England”, the serial number 57035, and should be dated to the 1980s.

Note: this instrument was kindly donated by Dave Levell (Pembrokeshire, Wales) in May 2023.

 

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Figure 1. Prior’s Stereomaster microscope as featured in a 1984 catalogue of Micro Instruments Ltd.