This microscope kit comes housed in housed in an OD painted wooden box with black painted iron reinforced corners, latches and lock escutcheon. The box meas. approx. 8.25 inches wide x 9.25 deep x 18.25 inches high. In a recessed circle at top is the carrying handle. The lock and latches have been removed but the lock is present with the kit. Apparently when the case was opened there was no key so it was pried open leaving behind pry marks around the lock escutcheon. The OD paint is in mostly good condition with some scrapes on the edges as well as some white staining from paint. The lid is in nice condition with clear clean stenciling that reads “STETS AUFRECHT STELLEN” which means “ALWAYS STORE UPRIGHT” and “MIKROSKOPIER-AUSRUSTUNG” or “MICROSCOPY EQUIPMENT.”

Upon opening the underside of the lid has wood blocks for holding things in place when the lid is closed. There is also a paper label attached with manufactures information with a handwritten date of June 23, 1941.

Examining the interior the first item encountered is a wooden box with a sliding top stored on the upper shelf of the case. This box is nicely made and finished. When the lid of the box is slid off it reveals twelve small black Bakelite containers each held in its own drilled hole in a wood shelf. All but two are marked with the type of stain or reagents they hold. Each of the twelve containers has a small glass vile inside, some still wrapped in their original paper wrappers. The two unmarked containers have an empty vile. The name of the dye or reagent is done in gold lettering on the top of the container and along a bottom edge. The lettering on some of the lids has worn off but most are readable. The lower side markings are all readable. Each glass vile is also marked in red lettering on the caps. All are empty. The containers are marked:

1.) Karbolfuchsin [Carbol fuchsin]

2.) Giemsalösung [Giemsa solution]

3.) Karbol Gentianaviolett [Carbol gentian violet]

4.) Löffler’s Methylenblau [Löffler’s methylene blue]

5.) Jodjodkalium [Iodine in aqueous potassium iodide]

6.) Alkohol-Salzsäure [Alcohol-Hydrochloric acid]

7.) Paraffin liqud [Liquid Paraffin; White mineral oil]

8.) Zedernholzöl [Cedarwood oil]

9.) Xylol [Xylene]

10.) Alkohol [Ethanol]

11.) (Blank) Empty

12.) (Blank) Empty –

This box also has a central compartment which holds the lock removed from the box, a small pasteboard box that holds three 1.50 x 2.75 note pads, a detachable amber lens and another pasteboard box that holds four 2.25 x 5.25 note pads and an extra amber lens.

Closing and returning the above mentioned box to its shelf in the case we next come to a smaller, narrower box held in a compartment under the top shelf. This box slides out on wood runners. This narrow box has two hook and stud closures. Upon opening the lid the interior is drilled with six holes. One hole holds an extra lens, two holes are empty and the other three hold three empty black Bakelite containers used to house the three lenses now on the microscope. Closing this lid and returning it to the case we now come to the microscope itself.

The microscope supplied in this military field hospital kit was manufactured by Winkel-Zeiss, Göttingen, Germany; the serial number engraved on the microscope is 63295. The microscope is a horse-shoe-base monocular, fitted with nosepiece for three objectives; fixed-length non-drawtube body; coarse and graduated fine focus in high position acting on the body tube; centerable, rotating, non-graduated stage; tiltable limb/base; double-sided plane/concave mirror; and 1.2 NA sub-stage condenser, with swing-out filter carrier, and long, low, vertically-disposed, focus adjustment, terminated by a knurled knob. Optics are good.

Along the left side of the case are two wooden runners that once held another box that is now missing. This box held some small medical instruments and cleaning tools.

This microscope kit with all the components that are present is in very good condition. It is a great item for any World War Two or medical collector.

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