Microscope
date: label: date made
content: ca 1890
name: label: maker
content: Bausch & Lomb
notes: label: Description
content: Bausch & Lomb introduced their Investigator microscope in 1880, telling the American Society of Microscopists that they “confidently claim to have reached a higher degree of perfection than is possessed by any one approximating it in price.” Three years later, the firm termed this a “moderate-priced instrument” with “features of a first-class and high-priced stand.” At that time, the instrument and case cost $40; with two objectives and camera lucida it cost $65. In the 1890s, Bausch & Lomb termed this an American Type Microscope, model H. With triple nosepiece, as here, it cost $81.50.
label: Description
content: This example is of that sort. It is a compound monocular with coarse and fine focus, inclination joint, triple nosepiece, circular stage, sub-stage dome diaphragm and double-sided mirror attach to a bar that can be angled up and down, and trileg base. The inscription on the stage reads “Bausch & Lomb / Optical Co.” The inscription on the arm reads “PAT. OCT. 3, 1876 / PAT. OCT. 13, 1885.” There are three objectives: one by Bausch & Lomb, and two by Spencer & Smith.
label: Description
content: Ref: “Microscopes and Objectives by the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company,” in J. Edwards Smith, <i>How to See with the Microscope</i> (Chicago, 1880), pp. 344-345.
label: Description
content: Bausch & Lomb, <i>Price List of Microscopes, Objectives and Accessories</i> (Rochester, 1883), pp. 22-23.
label: Description
content: Bausch & Lomb, <i>Microscope, Microtomes, Apparatus for Photo-Micrography, and Bacteriology Laboratory Supplies</i> (Rochester and New York, 1896), pp. 38-39.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Rochester
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
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content: Microscopes
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Bausch & Lomb Optical Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-12200
label: accession number
content: 272522
label: catalog number
content: M-12200
objectType: label: Object Name
content: microscope
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 33 cm x 18.3 cm x 21.6 cm; 13 in x 7 3/16 in x 8 1/2 in