Stage micrometer for a microscope, placed between two pieces of wood for protection.

A microscope 'stage' is the term used for the platform on which the slide is placed. A stage micrometer is the device used for measuring the dimensions of the sample under investigation. It is simply a microscope slide with a scale etched along one side. When viewed through a microscope, the scale and the sample are magnified by a known amount.

This micrometer for a microscope comes from a 15-drawer cabinet found in the Herschel family home in the 1950s. The contents of this and a similar cabinet seem to suggest that they were used by successive generations of the family to store specimens, material and apparatus for carrying out experiments.

Other findings in these cabinets show that various members of the family used microscopes to study botanical and geological specimens to study among other things their structure and in some cases their polarising properties.