Beck Small Best binocular compound microscope case and accessories
Date: 1876
Inventory Number: 1122b
Classification: Microscope Case
Dimensions:microscope: 44 × 25 × 24 cm (17 5/16 × 9 13/16 × 9 7/16 in.)
case: 15.9 × 47 × 24.2 cm (6 1/4 × 18 1/2 × 9 1/2 in.)
Accessories: Beck patent substage condenser (1122c); apertometer (1122d)
DescriptionThis is a Beck "Small Best" convertible binocular-monocular compound microscope with a full complement of accessories. Due to the complexity, the objects have been divided into the following:
1122a: Beck convertible binocular-monocular microscope
1122b: Beck case with objectives, oculars, and common accessories
1122c: Beck patent revolving substage condenser
1122d: Beck Cheshire's apertometer
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The compound microscope comes with a fitted mahogany case filled with accessories (1122b). The case is horizontal and cushioned with blue velvet. The brass lock set is signed by the maker "VR" under a crown, and marked "2 / LEVER" and "SECURE / LEVER." There is a steel key.
Sockets hold 3 eyepieces in addition to the 2 stored in the binocular microscope. Altogether, there are 5: 2 matched pairs (1 low, 1 medium power), and 1 high power eyepiece without a match. The ocular extension / draw tube for monocular use is also stored in the lid of the case.
The 6 Beck objectives are unmarked themselves (except as noted) but stored in brass canisters marked on top and bottom: 2 inch; 1 1/2 inch; 2/3 inch (canister empty); 4/10 inch with correction collar, Lieberkuhn sleeve, screw-on dust cap; 1/5 inch with correction collar, signed and labeled; and 1/10 IMMERSION, with correction collar, signed and labeled. There is also an erecting glass to be used in combination with the 2/3 inch objective, for showing the object erect and giving a greater range of magnifying power.
Other accessories in the case include a live box; 2 large rectangular glass slides with lips; a substage collar with an arm and socket to hold a dark well; plus three sizes of dark well specimen holders on long pins (these are for making a dark background to an object when the Lieberkuhns are used). There are brass tweezers with curved points; stage forceps (bent) with counterweight housing cork; a stage micrometer mounted in brass; and a polarizing set with Nicol's prism polarizer and analyzer plus an adapter.
There is a little mahogany box with a sliding cover. It holds 2 circular and 8 square glass over slips of diverse thicknesses. The cover slips are wrapped in blue-green tissue paper.
For illumination, there is a bull's eye condenser with a biconvex lens, on an articulated mount to be inserted in the microscope's arm. There is a parabolic reflector for dark field illumination of opaque objects, stored in an oval brass box. There is also a large Lieberkuhn with a brass dust cap. See also the Beck patent revolving substage condenser (1122c).
For drawing, there are two types of microscope camera lucidas: One by Beck of the Wollaston-type with a neutral density filter in a round, fold-over frame; and a Nachet prism-type with a blue filter in a swing-out frame.
There is added to the case a Cheshire's apertometer (1122d).
Signedobjective canisters (6): R & J. BECK / 31. CORNHILL / LONDON
on 1/5 inch and 1/10 inch immersion objectives: R & J. BECK
on Nachet prism type camera lucida: NACHET / A PARIS
Historical AttributesThis Wenham-type binocular microscope by R. & J. Beck was Alexander Agassiz's personal instrument. It was used at his Marine Biological Laboratory in Newport, Rhode Island, where Agassiz summered. The instrument appears with Agassiz in a portrait that shows him working in this lab. Corrosion on parts of the microscope are probably due to contact with marine creatures and sea water.
This microscope was given to the Ernst-Lewis Collection on May 18, 1936 by Dr. Thomas Barbour, Director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
According to the correspondence between Conrad Beck, managing director of R. & J. Beck, and Dr. Frederic T. Lewis in 1939, the microscope is the type called the "Small Best" and was made in 1876. With all the accessories, it would have cost between £60 and £80.
Primary SourcesRichard Beck, A Treatise on the Construction, Proper Use, and Capabilities of Smith, Beck, and Beck's Achromatic Microscopes, 3rd ed. (London: John van Voorst, 1865).
W. T. Suffolk, "On Microscopical Manipulation," The Chemical News, 6 no. 2, American reprint (February 1870): 53-60.
ProvenanceAlexander Agassiz, Marine Biological Laboratory, Newport, Rhode Island, c. 1876; Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, c. 1910; transfer by Thomas Barbour, MCZ Director to the Ernst-Lewis Collection of Microscopes (inv. no. 122), Harvard Medical School, May 18, 1936.