Chest Microscope, by Banks, London, Early 19th Century

This is a good early-nineteenth-century example of the chest microscope invented by Edward Nairne around 1770. It is based on the design of John Cuff of 1743, but in the Nairne version the foot of the pillar is attached to one side of a small chest via a compass joint. By moving down a hinged portion of the box, the pillar can be erected at the desired angle and the body tube inserted into the pillar. The three-winged Cuff-style stage is on a bracket that slides over the square pillar. Focusing is by rackwork; fine focus control is by a long vertical screw. The concave mirror is on a swing arm. The body tube consists of an eyepiece of two biconvex lenses and a biconvex field lens. Accessories include: six objectives, a spring stage, live-box, cone diaphragm, bull's eye on rod to fit to the stage, a lieberkuhn in a brass box, a lieberkuhn carrier, a fish-plate, stage forceps, tweezers, an ivory talc box and two glass phials.