The microscope is constructed primarily of brass, with a bronzed iron base. It features sliding-tube main focusing with a fine adjustment via a micrometer screw located at the top of the limb. Included are two eyepieces and a triple-button objective with a canister that can be separated for power adjustment. Other components include a stage condenser, a lyre-shaped stage clip, an aperture adjustment beneath the stage, dissecting tools, and both plane and concave mirrors for illumination. Height can be extended by a draw tube.
The following describing a similar microscope was taken from The Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue and Price-List of Optical Meteorological, Mathematical, and Engineering Instruments. Manufactured and Imported by James Prentice & Son, 176 Broadway, New York (no date)
"Microscope, 12 inches in height, with lacquered brass pillar-stand having bronzed base, and joint affording any angle of inclination, coarse and fine adjustment of focus effected, respectively, by rack and pinion and micrometer screw, attached condenser for illumination of opaque objects, stage-diaphragm, extension draw-tube, two triplet objectives and two eye-pieces, affording powers of 75 to 800 diameters ; including two prepared objects, four standard glass slips, four concave centers and covers, a pair of brass, forceps, one ivory disk, two dissecting needles and one knife; in French polished mahogany box."
* Note that the microscope shown on this page is identical to the one described above with the exception that the main focus is by sliding tube rather than by a rack and pinion.
Another microscope in this collection was likely made by the same
manufacturer that made the microscope shown on this page. That microscope focuses by rack and pinion and has no fine
focus adjustment.
Evidently, this type of microscope was produced in at least three
variants: the model shown on this page, the version depicted in the
illustration above having both a rack and pinion course focusing
and a fine adjustment, and a third, an example in this collection,
having only rack and pinion focusing.
The image below compares the two in this collection:
