Opera Glasses
date: label: date made
content: 19th century
notes: label: Description
content: When closed, this ingenious device appears as a simple tube covered with dark leather. When opened it is a binocular instrument. The “BTE SGDG” inscription on the focusing knob indicates that it is based on a French patent. The objective lenses are 29 mm diameter. The frame is nickel plated.
label: Description
content: John Browning in London described an instrument of this sort as a “Portable Binocular.” McAllister in Philadelphia described it as an “Articulated Pocket Opera Glass.”
label: Description
content: Ref: John Browning ad in <i>Nature</i> 20 (May 1, 1879): title page.
label: Description
content: William Y. McAllister, <i>Illustrated Catalogue of Spectacles, Opera Glasses, Opthalmoscopes and Meteorological Instruments</i> (Philadelphia, 1882), p. 49.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Optics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Jane and Mary Henle
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.336785
label: catalog number
content: 336785
label: accession number
content: 1978.2216
objectType: label: Object Name
content: opera glasses
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/2 in; 11.43 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 5/8 in x 1 3/8 in; 11.7475 cm x 3.4925 cm