This low-power binocular microscope is a Spencer Model 56 with coarse and fine focus, rotating triple nosepiece (only one objective survives), large rectangular stage, and wooden box. The inscription reads “SPENCER / BUFFALO / USA / 121744.” The serial number indicates a date of 1933. A S.I. tag on the arm reads 31968.
The Spencer Lens Co., in 1929, described their New Universal Binocular Microscopes No. 55 and No. 56 as “exceptionally large instruments” that met “in a most satisfactory way the demand for a large stage.” Each was equipped with Spencer’s new “Multiple Revolving Nosepiece” in which was dust-proof, and so arranged that the objectives could be easily removed and replaced with others.
Ref: Spencer Lens Co., Catalog of the More Popular Spencer Microscopes, Microtomes and Accessories (Buffalo, N.Y., 1929), pp. 30-31.
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