Zeiss Greenough stereo microscope, with twin macro illumination.
The Greenough stereo microscope was invented by American Horatio Saltstall Greenough. (Mr. Greenough was the son of, the same named, Horatio Greenough, one of the first American sculptors to gain international recognition.) A Greenough stereo microscope uses dual Porro prisms (named after inventor Ignazio Porro). These internally reflective prisms are used to provide erect images to the eyepieces from light paths which pass through two adjacent objectives, as opposed to the single objective designs of Riddell and Wenham. Today, Porro prisms are commonly used in microscopes and binoculars. Porro prism instruments are easy to identify owing to the relatively large tell-tale right angle turn in the viewing path. Greenough stereo microscopes are still widely use today. They provides images of objects that are not reversed as is typical with compound high power microscopes (Wade, 1998). Their design is derived from the monocular compound microscope, but here with dual paired microscopes working in unison. Mr. Greenough was living in Europe at the time he designed his stereo microscope. He met Ernst Abbe, of the Carl Zeiss company, at a hotel in the university city of Jena, Germany in 1886. Greenough drew a, now famous, diagram of his stereo microscope for Dr. Abbe. At the time Zeiss was possibly Europe's leading microscope maker, and the timing of the meeting was fortuitous. Ernst Abbe was the world's leading expert on optics, and had become Zeiss' partner about a decade earlier in 1875. Dr. Abbe owned about 45% of the Zeiss company. He had the technical abilities to understand and improve Greenough's concepts, and was in a position to insure its development. Greenough microscopes are designed for relatively low magnifications and long working distances. They are typically provided with the capability to adjust the separation of both binocular tubes to accommodate the interpupillary distance appropriate for individual users.
Size: 3543px × 2835px
Photo credit: © Scenics & Science / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: abbe, forensics, greenough, illumination., jena, macro, microscope, porro, prism, stereo, twin, zeiss
