DESCRIPTION:

This is a well-preserved dissecting microscope made by W. Watson & Sons in 1892. It is signed on the top surface of the brass part of the stage: Watson & Sons, 2781 on the left side, and on the right side 313 High Holborn, London. The stage is roughly 5 1/2 inches in outer diameter, the glass part about 4 inches. The stage site 3 1/2 inches high. The mirror casing is 2 inches in outer diameter. It sits on three legs with the front two angled, and the larger rear one straight, and containing the rack and pinion focusing mechanism. The roughly square profile legs tapers slightly. The bar supporting the arm is triangular in profile with the teeth on apex of the triangle which faces to the right. The stage has a raised glass center surrounded by a lacquered brass ring. The glass is painted black on its underside except for a 1 1/2 inch clear area in the center. The arm can swivel. There is a single labeled 1/2 inch lens with the instrument, though originally there were likely three. The substage mirror is concave on one side and is a flat white-cloud illuminator on the other side. It is gimbaled, can swivel, and the ring supporting it can slide up or down on the rear leg. The case contains a fitted drawer containing the original dissecting scissors with fine tips (signed PAIN), the original curved forceps, 3 fittings for lenses, and fittings for dissecting instruments. There are two dark-handled dissecting instruments in those fittings which are from the same period, but not original to this instrument. Unlike some other examples of this model, this example does not have holes in the brass part of the stage to support a bullseye condenser, nor is there provision for one in the case. The mahogany case, measures 7 1/8 inches in front to back outer dimension, and 7 1/4 inches wide. It is 5 3/4 inches high.

HISTORY OF WATSON DISSECTING MICROSCOPES

The Watson Dissecting Microscope was listed in Watson catalogs from 1884 to 1902; this type of dissecting microscope was not listed in the 1904 and subsequent Watson catalogs. Review of the Watson Delivery Books shows sales of the Dissecting microscope from June 1884 through April 1894, when my copy of the delivery books ends. It sold for 1£ 10s. This would be about £244 today(2024), or $312. Judging from the number listed in the delivery books, this was a popular microscope during the years it was sold.

The Watson Dissecting Microscope closely resembles the 1860s Improved Dissecting Microscope in this collection by Parkes & Son. The differences include:

1. Thicker legs for the Parkes model,
2. Single-sided flat mirror for the Parkes rather than the concave mirror on one side and white cloud illuminator on the other in the Watson,
3. Stage clips on the Parkes but not on the Watson
4. A small swing-out understage arm to hold a bullseye for top lighting on the Parkes,
5. A right-left orientation of the focusing knobs with rack towards the rear in the Parkes instead of the single rear-projecting knob with the rack to the right side in the Watson,
6. A smaller diameter glass stage on the Parkes of about 3 1/2 inches vs about 4 inches for the glass alone on the Watson with the entire stage larger still at about 5 1/2 inches.
7. The simple lenses for the Parkes screw in, as opposed to just dropping in for the Watson,
8. The Parkes simple lenses also had a much wider field of view.
9. Lastly, the Parkes had an additional compound tube attachment

By 1880, a slightly different model of the Parkes Improved Dissecting microscope had an in-stage wheel of apertures, and drop-in instead of screw-in lenses and this came to be known as the Huxley model. But Watson kept the older and simpler arrangement on their Dissecting Microscope, likely to keep the cost down.

Watson also sold a Laboratory Dissecting Microscope and a Simplex Dissecting Microscope (by Leitz), as well as articulated stands just to hold a dissecting eyepiece.
The Laboratory Model, advertised and first listed in the delivery books in 1894, a year during which the Dissecting Microscope model was also sold, was quite similar to those made by Bausch & Lomb. Like the B & L model, it is made primarily of wood with slanting sides to serve as hand rests. As early as 1893, B & L referred to theirs as designed by Professor C.R.Barnes of the U of Wisconsin.

The Simplex model listed in the Watson catalogs was made by Leitz and sold later than the other models mentioned above; similar models were made by most of the major makers, indeed they are still made today in the 21st century, though now mostly made in China and India. This type was often made with attachable hand rests of either metal (Leitz) or wood (Bausch & Lomb). An example of this type with wooden hand rests from about 1906 and made by Bausch & Lomb is in this collection and shown on this site.

Another more basic Watson model, the Table Stage was also sold.