TOLLES.
Robert B , lensmaker, was born in
Winchester, Litchfield co., Conn., about
1825, son of Elisha and Harriet Tolles. His
father was an inventor, but from lack of
funds was unable to develop any of his ideas.
The son was educated in the common district
school and passed his boyhood at home and on
his grandfather's farm near by, working to
aid in supporting the family. In 1813 while
in Canastota, N. Y., he accidentally visited
the workshop of Charles A. Spencer, and soon
afterwards he entered the service of the
celebrated lensmaker as an apprentice. Under
the instruction and guidance of this
remarkable man young Tolles learned the
special business in which he displayed such
genius. In 1858 he started in business on his
own account in Canastota, removing to Boston,
Mass., nine years later, where he organized
the Boston Optical Works. He was affiliated
with this company the remainder of his life,
for the first four years as superintendent
and thereafter as sole proprietor. His one
aim in his business was the improvement of
the microscope, and his achievements in this
line prove that he was well qualified for the
task by his " great theoretical and practical
knowledge of the science of optics, united
with mechanical and inventive genius and
marvelous skill of eye and hand." While still
in the service of Mr. Spencer he devised a
cover correction for objectives, and invented
and patented a solid eye-piece. In 1858 he
made his first immersion objectives, and
objectives with two fronts one to be used as
an immersion and the other dry, and in 1866
he obtained a patent for a stereoscopic
binocular eye-piece. He invented many other
devices and appliances for the microscope, as
well as some telescopes remarkable for their
short focal length in proportion to the
diameter of object-glass and for their
defining and penetrating power. The great
step, however, which placed him, together
with Charles A. and Herbert R. Spencer, at
the head of his profession, was the
construction in 1873 of an immersion
one-tenth objective with an aperture greater
than that corresponding to infinitely near
180 degrees in air. It was a three system
lens which had an aperture of more than 110
degrees in balsam, or 1.25 N. A., and which
is said to have produced " a revolution of
opinion and practice among users and makers
of microscopes all over the world." At the
same time he also made his first lens of the
duplex front formula one-fifth inch glycerine
immersion of 110 degrees balsam angle. On
Aug. 10, 1883, he was elected an honorary
member of the American Society of
Microscopists. Notwithstanding his valuable
achievements, the last ten years of his life
were years of suffering and hardship; he
worked at his bench when he should have been
in his bed, denying himself all the luxuries
and many of the comforts of life. He greatly
suffered from a disease of the lungs which
was contracted at an early age and which
caused his death. During his last illness, he
had a microscope brought to his bedside and
there on his deathbed examined and tested the
lenses. Only a few minutes before his death
he was occupied in correcting the degrees of
aperture of an imaginary lens and when he
reached 150 degrees, he stopped, turned his
head and said faintly, "Goodbye. He was
married in 1853 to Freelove S. Dickey, but
was left a widower a few months later. He
died in Boston, Mass. Nov. 17, 1883.
For a
discussion of the life and work of Robert B.
Tolles see:
Three American Microscope
Builders published by the
American Optical Company 1945.
Other examples of the Tolles Student's
microscope are located at the following
institutions:
Collection of Historical
Scientific Instruments-Harvard
University
National Museum of Health
and Medicine-Billings Microscope
Collection
Smithsonian-National Museum
of American History
The Museum of the History
of Science, University of Oxford
Laupus Health Sciences History
Collections - Historic Microscope
Collection
