4,52 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
Interesting Announcement! 
125,000 MICROSCOPES. 
Genuine, Well Made, servicable, highly useful 
ns well as interesting Instruments. A good 
source of Instruction and amusement. Three 
Pine Lenses and Diaphragm—Stand with 
Glass Stage, Clips, Glass plates and Cell—Uses 
Reflected and Transmitted Light, for Opaque 
and Transparent Objects — Seven Different 
Powers—Magnifies 6 to 25 Diameters, and 36 
to 625 Areas — Conveniently arranged for 
Practical Use—Not moulded glass, but care¬ 
fully ground and thoroughly made Lenses. 
ONE FOR 
Every Subscriber 
TO THE 
American Agriculturist, 
We have a very pleasant announcement to make. 
It has been customary of late years for many jour¬ 
nals to annually present their readers with a 
Chromo, and this journal has done its part in 
Bending out beautiful pictures that now adorn 
hundreds of thousands of homes. Very many 
have asked “ What will you offer for 1878 ? ” The 
business has been so overdone by cheap, worthless, 
distorted daubs, that we have hesitated about 
longer competing with the trashy things sent out, 
and when last summer a boy offered to “ black yer 
hutes and give yer a ten dollar chromo for 5 
cents,” we surrendered.—But we have for months 
past been looking earnestly for some Souvenir, 
some Keepsake, to send to our readers, that would 
be not only interesting, but really and eminently 
useful to all, and WE HAVE FOUND IT ! 
After examining many things, it occurred to us 
that one of the most desirable, interesting, and prac¬ 
tically useful things would be some convenient 
form of the Microscope, if a good one could be 
had within the limits of price, etc. A Microscope is 
ready valuable to Farmers— to detect, distinguish, 
and aid in remedying diseases on plants and animals, 
whether from insects, decay, or smut, mildew^ lice, scab, 
etc. ; to detect adulteration in seeds, and their degree of 
goodness or badness, the proportion of fertile and infer¬ 
tile seed ; also adulteration in fertilizers, ground bone, 
etc. ; to examine wounds and bruises, extract slivers 
from the hands, etc., etc. The Microscope is equally 
useful to Gardeners, Florists, Fruit-growers, etc., for 
most of the above purposes and for many others. 
The Microscope is useful to All Classes, to de¬ 
tect adulterations in food, as in coffee, tea, spices, sugar, 
and to examine the texture and defects of many articles. 
As a source of Instructive Amusement, 
the Microscope is 'exceedingly valuable to Children, to 
Young people, and to grown people. The beautiful 
forms and structure of the most minute flowers, of 
insects, etc., are wonderful when examined by even 
a Microscope of very moderate power. The dust on 
the wing of a butterfly or moth becomes, under the 
glass, most beautiful feathers or other forms. The 
mold on cheese or on a moldy shoe becomes to the 
eye a forest-like growth. The structure of the 
soil under our feet, its curious mixtures of crystals 
and broken rocks, are interesting to examine. A 
drop of spirits of camphor put on the glass is seen 
shooting into wonderful crystals, as,the liquid evap¬ 
orates. Hundreds of other things may be examined, 
furnishing varied instruction, and most elevated enter¬ 
tainment. As an interesting Toy, nothing else equal 
to a fairly good Microscope can be given to Children. 
Impressed with the value and desirableness of an 
instrument which would accomplish the above, we 
set about examining the various low-priced Micro¬ 
scopes and magnifying glasses to be found here, 
Fig. 1.— MICROSCOPE WITH ALL LENSES IN USE. 
or imported. Two difficulties were met with. 
First, the cheap instruments found, were all of poor 
quality, and lacking some facilities in working; and, 
second, anything having the perfection of lens and 
other parts which we could commend, would cost 
far too much to be introduced into every family. 
We found no microscope costing less than $2.75 
having the principal requisites of one we desired 
to find—such as triple lenses, stand, adjustability 
to use reflected and transmitted light, etc., etc. 
Next, the query came up: Is it not possible, by means of 
improved machinery for grinding lenses, and for mak¬ 
ing each part, and by doing this on a very large scale, 
to get the desired Microscope at such an exceedingly low 
cost that every one of our readers could have one ? 
To this end, we entered into consultation with the 
Bauscli & Lomb Optical Company, the inventors 
and manufacturers of the Excelsior and higher 
grade Microscopes, and of many other optical in¬ 
struments, who enthusiastically seconded and aided 
our efforts to the utmost of their skill and ability. 
A large number of experiments have been made, 
many forms and combinations of lens and stand, 
etc., have been constructed, machinery has been 
devised for rapid and perfect work, and as the re¬ 
sult, we have A Most Valuable Microscope, 
Fig. 2.— STAND—LENSES—DIAPHRAGM. 
which we now place before our readers with a sat¬ 
isfaction that is certainly very great to us, and will 
doubtless be pleasing to every reader of this journal. 
Inscription of the Microscope. 
The Microscope is shown in the engravings here¬ 
with. The three Lenses (a, b, c, tig. 2) are of su¬ 
perior glass, carefully ground, adjusted to use sepa¬ 
rately and in combination,and each one is in a polish¬ 
ed hard rubber setting. The lens a (Fig. 2) mag¬ 
nifies about 6 diameters or 36 areas or surfaces ; b 
magnifies about 8 diameters or 64 areas ; c magni¬ 
fies about 10 diameters, or 100 areas; b and c, 
used together, magnify about 18 diameters, or 334 
areas. The three used together magnify about 25 
diameters, or 635 areas. Used singly, or in 
combined pairs, and triplet, seven different magni¬ 
fying powers are obtained , of from 6 to 25 diameters, 
or from 36 to 625 areas. It will thus be seen that 
by using, as in fig. 1, all three lenses upon a minute 
object or part of an object, its surface or area will 
he magnified or expanded 635 times ! 
A Diaphragm, d, is used to cut off distortion 
and render the field of observation distinct. (Full 
explanations of the use and mode of using each part, 
with many illustrations, to aid all to the proper 
management of the instrument, will accompany 
each microscope sent out.) The three lenses are 
joined on a hollow rivet, so that they can be re¬ 
moved from the stand to use as hand-glasses, single 
or combined, as showu in fig. 5. . They can be car¬ 
ried in the pocket, if the glasses be protected by a 
covering (as a soft leather bag or wrapper, made 
from buckskin, or an old glove.) 
Fig. 3.— LENSES ETC., SHOWN SEPARATED. 
The Stand (fig. 2,) has a base, s, of polished hard 
rubber, with an opening to admit light underneath. 
In the top of the base is a fixed glass stage, z, 
upon which to place objects to be examined. Two 
thin plates of glass (fig. 4,) are provided to lay over 
this, between which flat objects may be placed. The 
water-proof Cell, (fig. 6), with a central aperture, 
can he placed between the glass plates, forming a 
cavity for liquids, for small insects, seeds, etc., 
etc. These plates and cell are held firmly in place 
by the Metallic Clips or Springs, so that the in¬ 
strument can be set on the table or held in 
the hand for opaque objects, or be held up to 
the light when examining transparent or other 
specimens which are best seen by light passing 
through them. — The whole is inclosed in a Deat 
Case or Box, with cover, for carrying and keeping. 
Terms of Supplying the Microscope 
to Our Subscribers. 
We labored and studied long, night and day, 
trying to devise an instrument, and new machinery 
for manufacture, to get something that would be so 
low in cost, that we could absolutely present one to 
every reader, and two such instruments, with a sin¬ 
gle lens, were first adopted. But when we found that 
by a little more expense, comparatively, we could 
get up a complete instrument, like the one above 
described, with three lenses, diaphragm, etc., we 
concluded it would be far better to adopt this, 
and thus 6end out 6uch a complete instrument, 
and trust to our readers to share a small part of the 
cost (and only a part). No instrument so well made. 
