New Design for a Versatile Field Microscope

The present article presents a new concept for a light optical field microscope developed after two decades of attempts to find a portable, yet versatile and capable, instrument for extra-laboratory research. Emphasis was put on a portable microscope with polarizing capabilities, yet versatile enough to perform in other configurations. After testing almost every available model made during the last century, the Goren microscope, as it is called now, was developed and tested in various field conditions. The new design, fashioned as two prototypes, is expected to be inexpensive if commercially produced. Still, it can be readily modified to perform as a bright-field, dark-field, phase-contrast, or polarizing instrument. The historical background of field microscopes is briefly presented in context of this new invention.