Title: Large Best No.1 Microscope

Identifier: LL02.48.02.18   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/22091)

Description: This is the top of the line microscope from Smith and Beck, manufactured for almost 50 years. It was introduced about 1845 and was one of the first models made for Charles Darwin, whose microscope is in the Whipple Museum at Cambridge. Other users include Lord Joseph Lister, the famous surgeon. This instrument is missing the substage carrier. Darwin's microscope did not have the rack and pinion condenser mounting. This microscope came with a variety of accessories including 3 oculars, 7 objectives, measuring eyepiece, micrometer, camera lucida, magnification reducer/erecting glass, parabolic condenser, vertical illuminator, polarizing prisms, and oblique illuminators, including an Amici prism. After 1861, many were made with Wenham binocular tubes and some of the older models were converted to Wenham binoculars. The serial number is 2056.