DESCRIPTION:
This is a tripod-mounted compound microscope made in Germany from about 1925 made by the Spindler & Hoyer company, and sold by many retailers in other countries including Griffin and Baird & Tatlock of England. It focuses by sliding the nickel-plated tube up or down the central sleeve. Unlike many other tripod microscopes of this basic form, this model has a stage with double stage clip and a gimbaled substage mirror. It features three magnifications via a divisible objective giving reported magnifications of 20 to 200 power.

The legs of the tripod unscrew. The instrument then actually screws into the bottom of an oxidized brass cylinder case. The three tripd legs are then dropped into three holes (blue arrows, left) in the threaded ring; these holes are slightly larger than the holes the legs screw into when the microscope is in use. After the legs are stored this way, the top part of the cylinder case screws on top, making it a very well-protected instrument for transport. The case is about 5.5 inches loing and about 1.5 inches in diameter. The top of the case is stamped JUNIOR and the bottom GERMANY.

HISTORY:

In England this was sold as a Pocket Microscope. In the U.S.A. it sold for $10 as the Junior German Microscope. In Germany, it was also advertised as a Taschen-Mikroskop Junior . (Taschen-Mikroscope is German for pocket microscope). This German ad illustrates how the legs are stored.