|
|
Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
|
|
|
|
|
Microscope
34A (R & J
Beck; model 29; 1930s)
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 34A is known as
Beck’s Model 29 and date from the late 1920s and 1930s. The black stand has a
Y-shaped foot with a short pillar supporting the curved limb. The body tube
moves on rack work for coarse focusing and a graduated knob on the limb
adjusts the fine focus. A substage condenser with an iris diaphragm and a
pivoting mount for aperture discs is mounted on rack work below the square
stage. A plano-concave mirror is set in a horseshoe
mount on the lower end of the limb. According to an early 20th
Century Beck’s catalogue, these microscopes gave the best possible service,
both as regards convenience in use and in lasting properties, for use in
teaching and research institutions where instruments receive constant and
hard use (Figure 1). These microscopes could be purchased in its simplest
forms and built up as desired into more complete instruments for high power
work. The serial number of microscope 34A is 11084.
Figure 1.
Beck’s model 29 microscope (adapted from an early 20th Century R
& J Beck Ltd catalogue) References James
Smith, 1800 – 1873 (http://microscopist.net/SmithJ.html),
last accessed on 12.08.2020 R.
and J. Beck (https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/R._and_J._Beck), last
accessed on 12.08.2020 LAST EDITED: 15.08.2020 |
