Brass screw-barrel microscope of the sort that the English optician, James Wilson, introduced to the Royal Society in 1702. It has a detachable wooden handle; three condensing lenses, each in a brass holder; a brass bar holding six objectives; nine ivory sliders; and a forceps. A second brass tube with a large and almost flat condensing lens could be used to connect the microscope with a (missing) window plate and mirror, so that this could be used as a solar microscope.
Colby College was established in 1813, and may have acquired this microscope at that time.
Ref: Deborah Warner, “Projection Apparatus for Science in Antebellum America,” Rittenhouse 6 (1992): 87-94.
Gerard L’E Turner, The Great Age of the Microscope (Bristol and New York, 1989), p. 236.
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.