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COMPOUND BINOCULAR MICROSCOPE

MAKER:Smith & Beck

MODEL:'Best No 1'

c.1858-1862

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

SERIAL NUMBER: 1873

OWNER: Sold to John Newman in 1858

This is one of the two large accessory boxes; please scroll down to see the other one.

Smith and Beck Best No.1 microscope accessory box LEGEND:
  1. Amici Prism assembly fitting into focusable substage, and used for oblique illumination*
  2. Lister-type Erecting lens
  3. Live Trap Kit
  4. Box containing parabolic nosepiece reflector
  5. Case containing Beck Vertical Illuminator
  6. Blackened Brass slide with 3 different holes for the Double Prism experiments
  7. Eyecap adapters for Polarized Light experiments which includes two double-image prisms, a selenite, and a 'crystal mounted to show rings'**
  8. Tourmaline Eyecap
  9. Darkground 'Spot' Illuminator
  10. Drawtube for high power monocular work
  11. 'Key'(spanner wrench) for adjusting tension of the inclination joint
  12. Diamond tipped writing tool
  13. Tongs for picking up the Opaque Rotator Disks
  14. Space for three glass test tubes, stored inside each other(lacking)
  15. Beck Opaque Disk Rotator
  16. Glass slide consisting of two slides cemented together, with a circular cutout in the upper one, forming a well, for use as a 'life slide'
  17. Narrow glass trough
  18. Can containing a cylinder for the Disks for the Opaque Disk Rotator
  19. Three-pronged Forceps
  20. Leather case for Maltwood finder
  21. Parallel Plate Compressor

This is the second of two Accessory Boxes, please scroll up to see both Accessory Boxes

Smith and Beck Best No.1 microscope accessory box LEGEND:
  1. Thicker Trough with spring, glass plate for bottom, glass plate for adjusting trough space, and Ivory Wedge
  2. Live box
  3. Brass Tongs
  4. Stage Forceps
  5. Glass Ledge Slide
  6. Rotating Nosepiece to Accept analyzer from eyecap
  7. Eyecap Analyzer with removeable analyzer
  8. Limb-mounted Bullseye Condenser
  9. Substage polarizer
  10. Eyepiece
  11. Limb-mounted Silver Side Reflector
  12. Substage fitting to hold Darkwells
  13. 3 Darkwells
  14. Box containing spare Coverglasses for Livebox, Vertical Illuminator, and Parallel Compressor
  15. Lieberkuhn
  16. Substage Paraboloid for Darkground work
  17. Achromatic Condenser
  18. Double Nosepiece Objective changer
  19. Substage Stack of Three Rotating Selenites
  20. Lieberkuhn
  21. Pair of Eyepieces
  22. 1/5" Objective in Can
  23. 4/10" Objective in Can
  24. 2/3" Objective in Can
  25. 1 1/2" Objective in Can
  26. 3" Objective in Can

These boxes contain a group of accessories similar but not identical to the accessory boxes depicted in Richard Beck's A Treatise on the Construction, Proper use, and Capabilities of Smith, Beck and Beck's Achromatic Microscopes of 1865. Besides the differences in accessories, the accessories are arranged in a different order. In the 1865 accessory boxes, the drawtube is not in the accessory case, but housed separately in the main case for the microscope. Instead of a double nosepiece there is a quadruple nosepiece. There is also a second equilateral substage prism shown in the 1865 engraving in addition to the one supplied with this outfit, which is an Amici prisim for oblique lighting. There were spaces for four eyepieces in the accessory case of 1865. The 1865 outfit also had a lever compressor and a lister screw-type livebox-compressor as well as an additional large livebox. It appears that the nosepiece parabolic reflector included with this outfit was not included in the 1865 boxes.

*This type of Amici Microscope Prism should not be confused with other prisms associated with his name. These include the classic Amici prism for forming a direct vision spectroscope, and an inverting Roof Prism.

**The 'rings' referred to constitute the conoscopic or interference pattern of the crystal when viewed between crossed polarizers (polarizer and analyzer).