Microscope
date: label: date made
content: ca 1870
name: label: maker
content: Reichert, Carl
notes: label: Description
content: This is a compound monocular with rack-and-pinion for coarse adjustment, micrometer screw for fine adjustment, square stage, inclination joint, sub-stage condenser and iris diaphragm, sub-stage mirror, and tall black iron pillar with circular base. The “C. REICHERT / VIII Bennogasse 26 / WIEN” inscription on the tube refers to an optical firm that was established in Vienna in 1876 by Carl Reichert (b. 1851), a young man who had learned the microscope business from his father-in-law, Ernst Leitz in Wetzlar. The address and lack of serial number suggests that this microscope was made early in the firm’s history.
label: Description
content: This example was owned by Alfred McEwen, an American businessman who, in 1921, prepared an exhibit of microengraving for the Smithsonian. This consisted of “The Lord’s Prayer” engraved on a tiny square of glass, so arranged that it could be viewed under a microscope through the eye of a needle. McEwen gave the engraving and the microscope to the Smithsonian in 1925. Following McEwen’s death in 1945, his son gave other items to the Smithsonian, including the micropantograph with which the engraving was done.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Hapsburg Empire: Austria-Hungary, Vienna
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
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content: Microscopes
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content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.0833.034
label: catalog number
content: 1979.0833.034
label: accession number
content: 1979.0833
objectType: label: Object Name
content: microscope
label: Object Type
content: Microscope
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 24 in x 4 in x 5 1/2 in; 60.96 cm x 10.16 cm x 13.97 cm