COMPOUND BINOCULAR MICROSCOPE

MAKER:Smith & Beck

MODEL:'Best No 1'

c.1858-1865

SIGNED:'Smith & Beck, 6 Coleman St, LONDON'

SERIAL NUMBER: 1873

PARALLEL PLATE COMPRESSOR:

This compressor uses large rectangular coverslips, each held in place by a pair of small knurled knobs. The two surfaces have their knobs oriented 90 degrees from each other with matching holes in the opposing plate, to allow the glass surfaces to meet without interference. The tapered tip on the tightening screw applies more pressure as it is tightened further. A later version of this compressor used round cover slips on small removeable metal frames, which made it less likely that the thin slips would be damaged when attached and removed from the compressor. This was important then, as coverslips of thin glass were quite expensive to fabricate properly.