Cuff-type compound microscope
Date: circa 1775
Inventory Number: 1244
Classification: Microscope
Place of Origin:England
Dimensions:44 × 15.5 × 15.5 cm, 15.43 lb. (17 5/16 × 6 1/8 × 6 1/8 in., 7 kg)
Overall - Storage: 54 × 19.5 × 25 cm (21 1/4 × 7 11/16 × 9 13/16 in.)
Accessories: 5 objectives; 1 ocular; Lieberkühn; stage forceps; live box; bull's eye lens mounted on pillar; pyramidal box.
DescriptionBrass microscope of the style of John Cuff's "new-constructed double microscope" is fixed on a wooden chest with a single drawer.
The optical assembly has all its optics.
The optical tube is mounted on a bracket fixed to a rectangular pillar mounted to a brass plate that is screwed to the top of the chest that serves as the base. The stage moves up and down the pillar by rack and pinion, enabling focus. It has three wings. There are two slots: one to take a fish plate; another to mount a condensing lens or stage forceps. In the center of the stage is an aperture for a removable (and currently missing), spring-loaded collar for the insertion of slides.
A concave glass mirror is held in a brass bezel and frame and is free to move on a C-shaped support mounted in the microscope brass base plate. The brass plate is screwed to the top of wooden chest.
The chest is made from mahogany, and it has a single drawer with an ivory knob. The drawer is subdivided into two compartments to hold accessories. The original rear of the drawer is missing.
Accessories include a bull's eye lens on a rod; stage forceps of brass and steel; a Lieberkuhn, 4 objectives (plus one attached to the microscope body along with the eyepiece), and a live box with a lens at the top, but missing a pressure-fit bottom.
The box also contains a rectangular piece of hard leather, which was used to prop up the top of the chest before it got conserved.