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History of Science Museum

Compound Microscope, Case and Accessories, c. 1853

Inventory Number 53440


Acknowledgement: © History of Science Museum, University of Oxford, inv.53440

Subject
Microscopy
Item type
Object
Provenance
Not ascertained. Pre 1950. Plaque on foot reads "A TOKEN OF grateful remembrance from the Members of the Plymouth Mechanics Institute to the REV. W.I. ODGERS 1853".
Primary inscriptions
"Horne Thornthwaite & Wood Newgate St. London." on the foot
Other inscriptions
"A Token of Grateful Remembrance From The Members Of The Plymouth Mechanics Institute To the Rev W. I. Odgers 1853." on the foot
Object type
Microscope
Inventory No
53440

Description

This copper alloy instrument is carried on trunnions on a flat tripod foot. The curved limb supports a sleeve holding the body tube. The body can be racked up and down within the sleeve, for coarse focusing, by two mill-edged knobs at the rear of the limb. The eyepiece screws into the top of the body. A vertical screw on the front of the lower end of the body moves an inner cylinder, with an internal thread to take objectives, for fine focusing. The rectangular stage has a sliding bracket to support specimens. A rotating disk with four apertures is mounted on the underside of the stage. A cylinder extends below the stage and as inner cylinder, with a pinhole to take a mirror pushes into it. The wooden case also holds an eyepiece, two Nicol prisms polarizers and two objectives that do not fit this instrument.