3-053-576 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Mr. Cornelius Varley, 1873. Engraving from a photograph by Messrs. Varley Brothers, of a '...veteran student and practical improver of science and art...In 1811 he invented and patented the graphic telescope, an instrument of great value in his hands, but which even in the present day is not so well known as it deserves to be, though it obtained the prize medal of the Exhibition of 1851, forty years after its introduction...To him were awarded at different periods two silver medals and the gold medal...for machinery for grinding and polishing specula, for improvements in microscopes, for observations and illustrations of the circulation of the sap in water plants, and for improvements in the construction of microscopes specially designed for these researches. Mr. Varley took an active interest in all matters connected with natural science; but he is best known for his knowledge of optics and his love of microscopical investigation...[He made] observations...illustrated by numerous magnified drawings, which have a special value for their accuracy, the result of his ability as an artist, and for their having been traced by his graphic arrangement from living specimens under the microscope'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.