Description

This is a rugged compound monocular with coarse and fine focus, square mechanical stage, trunion, and Lister limb with sub-stage mirror. The body is brass; the horseshoe base is black cast iron. The inscription reads “R. FIELD & SON / OPTICIANS / NEW STREET / BIRMINGHAM.” In 1855, Robert Field of Birmingham won the prize that the Society of Arts in London offered for the best microscope costing just three Guineas, and by 1861 he had sold some 1800 instruments of this sort.Ref: William Carpenter, The Microscope and Its Revelations (London, 1868), p. 58.Currently not on view

Record Contributed By

National Museum of American History

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution