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Microscope Museum Collection of antique microscopes and other
scientific instruments |
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Microscope
258 (R & J
Beck; ‘British Students’ microscope No. 55; c. 1897)
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 258 is from R & J Beck Ltd and date to c. 1897. The instrument
is signed ‘R & J Beck Ltd, London’ and has the serial number 21632. This
instrument should be an earlier version of the model known as the ‘British
Students’ microscope (Figure 1).
Figure
1.
Beck’s ‘British Students’ microscope No. 55, as engraved in a 1910s
catalogue from the company. Reference R & J Beck (1894)
Illustrated catalogue of microscopes 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: 02.10.2022 |
