Can someone identify this antique brass and glass item?

[myers601]

Today I picked up this item at a local estate sale. It came in many more pieces than when the pictures were taken and seems to still be missing a few. There are no markings anywhere on the pieces except measurement marks on the adjusting nobs (centimeters). As you can see the long pieces of glass are in octagon shape.

Can someone please give me a hint as to what this is?

Thanks

[waywardangler]

I am going to take a wild guess and say these are antique microscope or binocular scope parts.  I think there are many missing parts.  The octagonal rods should gather light from the prisms.  I do not think the parts are laid out correctly.  Just a guess.

[cogar]

I like that, I would have bought it also.

I think you have them laid out correctly. Me thinks it might be parts for a diffraction or refraction microscope. 

It looks to me like the octagonal rods receives the light from the mirror, transmits it to the prisms which should be inside that "holder" and then the 2 prisms redirect the 2 images up through the tube to the eye piece (ocular).

And due to the clear glass tubes the rods fit into I'll make a wild, wild guess and say it is used for studying "gases".

Optical and electron microscopy involve the diffraction, reflection, or refraction of electromagnetic radiation (visible light) /electron beams interacting with the subject of study, and the subsequent collection of this scattered radiation in order to build up an image. This process may be carried out by wide-field irradiation of the sample (for example standard light microscopy and .... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microscopy

[winffup]

Here's a link to a site of an antique microscope collector.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.antique-microscopes.com/mics.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.antique-microscopes.com/&usg=__lO6Bendjh_hv3ZxO1Ts7BDXMq38=&h=333&w=745&sz=90&hl=en&start=2&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=0HG6Wt1k8ndEOM:&tbnh=63&tbnw=141&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dantique%2Bbrass%2Bmicroscope%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26tbs%3Disch:1

He has many pics of brass antique microscopes and could probably tell you exactly what it is