Carroll purchased the most recent microscope available
An interesting facts about Lewis Carroll, like many early adopters of modern technology, Carroll purchased the most recent microscope available. The microscope, made in 1859 by Smith & Beck of London, was "something he had his entire life and took incredible care of," according to Vega.
John Benjamin Dancer's invention of microphotographs resulted from the marriage of two leading Victorian technologies: microscopy and photography. For one shilling, one could buy a 3′′1′′ glass slide with what appeared to be a tiny dot on it, but when examined under a microscope, revealed to be a portrait of a famous scientist or writer, a landscape, or the entire Lord's Prayer.
Carroll's own microscope is now housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library's Houghton Collection. He also had a geographer's pen, which he used with a magnifying glass to write "miniature" or "fairy" letters, about the size of a postage stamp and usually addressed to children.
According to the Morgan's exhibit, Carroll used the microscope to examine amoebas, other protozoa, and insect larvae. "This is a most interesting sight, as the creatures are most conveniently transparent, and you see all kinds of organs jumping about like a complicated piece of machinery … Everything goes on at railway speed, so I suppose they must be some of those insects that only live a day or two, and try to make the most of it." he wrote in a letter to his sister Elizabeth.
