Accession No

3459

Brief Description

compound microscope, by Benjamin Pike and Sons, U.S.A., circa 1860

Origin

U.S.A.; New York; 518 Broadway

Maker

Benjamin Pike and Sons

Class

microscopes

Earliest Date

1860

Latest Date

1860

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass, cast iron, oxidised brass, steel); wood (mahogany and one other); ivory; glass; cloth (velvet); paper (card, tissue paper)

Dimensions

height 405mm; breadth 150mm; depth 170mm box height 405mm; breadth 210mm; depth 180mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Tesseract, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, USA, 1986. Purchased with grant-in-aid from Science Museum (PRISM).

Inscription

‘B. Pike & Sons.
Makers
518 Broadway, N.Y.’ (body)
‘Pike & Sons
518 Broadway, N.Y.’ (objective cases)

Description Notes

Cast iron claw foot with two standards supporting brass limb. Tubular tailpiece with swinging plano-concave mirror on a sliding shoe. Mechanical stage operated by brass lever on ball and socket joint (broken). Substage diaphragm with four settings. Racked column with pair of knurled screws either side of limb. Bar limb with clamping screw and fine focus screw. Fixed body. Push-fit eyepiece and screw-fit objective.
Fitted mahogany case with brass hinges and carrying handle (lock missing). Contains drawer with two further eyepieces and drawer with three objectives (one missing) marked 1/5, 4/10 and 2/3, two carrying correction collar adjustments. Further drawer containing three slides (two dimpled), box of cover slips, pipette and brass implement of unknown use. Brass stand possibly for simple microscope for slide preparation also in box. Box partially lined with green velvet.

Condition unacceptable (microscope very tarnished and box in very poor condition indeed); complete.

References

Events