COMPOUND BINOCULAR MICROSCOPE
MAKER:Smith & Beck
MODEL:'Best No 1'
c.1858-1865
SIGNED:'Smith & Beck, 6 Coleman St, LONDON'
SERIAL NUMBER: 1873
Glass accessories for this Smith & Beck microscope include the larger version of the Beck trough, complete with spring, wedge, rectangular glass plate for the bottom, and the tilting upright glass piece. This is essentially the same trough included with James Smith's early microscopes, except for the design of the wedge, which is thinner and of the type usually supplied with the smaller trough. The wedge and spring acting against the internal glass piece allows the chamber size to vary. In later catalogs, the more delicate wedge found with this set, was offered with a smaller trough, while the thicker wedge found with the trough with the earlier Smith microscope on this site was offered with the larger version of trough. These troughs were offered for at least forty years. Images below are from the 1882 catalog.