Optical Technology
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of several hundred items of optical technology. These date broadly from 1700 to 1999. This collection contains microscopes, spectacles, projectors, cameras, viewfinders, lenses and lens covers. It also includes bulbs, films, photographic chemicals, camera plates, information booklets, camera club syllabuses, visitor books, prize shields, trophies and cases. The camera collection contains a large box Victorian studio-plate camera that dates to before 1890, and several Kodak box Brownies. There are also several cine cameras, including a Paillard Bolex, Pathescope ‘H’ and a Glasgow-made 8mm Argus. The collection further contains several cinema projectors, cine projectors and home magic-lantern glass slides. Other items include a Britex ‘Naturalist’ microscope, used in the 1960s, seven magnifying glasses, ten theodolites and over 100 pairs of spectacles. The collection also notably encompasses a telescope dating from 1737, a sextant dating from 1783 and the Stevenson lantern, the largest piece of optical equipment in the collection, which was used in the Toward lighthouse between 1877 and 1933.
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