Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

Microscope 304 (R & J Beck; student’s microscope; c. 1873)

R & J Beck occupy an especially important place in the history of the British microscope manufacturing with its beginning established in London, by Richard Beck (1827 - 1866) in association with James Smith (1800 – 1873), and later to be joined by his brother Joseph Beck. Richard and Joseph Beck were nephews of Joseph Jackson Lister, who was a respected British optician and physicist who experimented with achromatic lenses and perfected an optical microscope. In commissioning the manufacture of his improved microscope, Lister worked with James Smith, an employee of the instrument-making firm of William Tulley, to create the stand. James Smith went on to establish his own optical instruments workshop in 1837. Through this relationship, Lister arranged for his nephew, Richard Beck to be an apprentice under Smith in 1843. In 1847, James Smith entered into partnership with Richard Beck, and the company was re-named Smith & Beck. In 1854, the company was renamed to Smith, Beck and Beck, as Richard Beck's brother Joseph Beck joined the company in 1851. James Smith retired in 1865 and the company became R & J Beck and this name lasted for long time. In 1866, Richard Beck died at an early age of 39, and Joseph Beck carried on the business. In 1895 the company became a limited partnership (R & J Beck Ltd). By 1968, the company was a subsidiary of the Ealing Corporation of USA. In 2019, Beck Optronic Solutions Ltd is a descendent of the former R & J Beck Ltd.

Microscope 304 is engraved ‘R & J Beck, 31 Cornhill, London’. The instrument contains the serial number 6095 and can be dated to c. 1873. The microscope came with its original wooden box, including a bullseye lens condenser and other accessories. The box contains a label of the retailer ‘Millikin & Lawley, 67 & 68, Chandos Street, Strand, W.C.’.  Not much information is available about this firm. Millikin and Lawley firm was a retailer of microscopes and scientific equipment. The company was originally founded before 1820 at 301 Strand and moved to 161 Strand in the mid-1840s. In 1854, the business was acquired by William Lawley and the shop at 161 Strand was renamed to ‘Millikin and Lawley’. It is not known when the company started to operate from Chandos Street in London. This microscope, and former versions of the same instrument made by Smith, Beck and Beck, was featured in several editions of W Carpenter’s book ‘The microscope and its revelations’ (from 1856 to 1875), and in other books such as Quekett’s ‘Practical treatise on the use of the microscope’ (1848 and 1852) (Figure 1). As Carpenter described, this instrument was rated as a second-class microscope, which included “… instruments which combine first-rate workmanship with simplicity in the plan of construction; and which may be consequently designated as ‘Superior Student’s Microscopes’…”. The fine adjustment is placed behind the pillar carrying the body.

Figure 1. Beck’s student microscope as featured in the 1875 edition of W Carpenter’s book ‘The microscope and its revelations’.