The antique 1800s and for that matter early 1900's microscopes were probably owned and used by rich people only.
Or perhaps you could access one if you were a servant working at their house and they let you use it. Even things like watches were like this. Today anyone can buy a watch or even a microscope for a very affordable rate.
The same goes for cars, etc...
I am glad I have such great opportunities in this time.
Victorian Age vs. Today's Opportunities
Re: Victorian Age vs. Today's Opportunities
One may ask if it is preferable in general to live in a later era rather than an earlier one. It is obviously desirable from a technological, scientific and medical point of view. But was the people living, say, 120 years ago better off in any way at all compared to us today? I sometimes wonder if we don't suffer more chronic stress and angst, precisely because our world is now so jam-packed to the brim with facts, theories, opinions and electronic clutter. While I too by far prefer to live in this era, I do have an odd yearning, be it rational or fanciful, for the slower pace and a deeper immersion in fewer interests that I suspect came more easily to the folk from days gone by. Also, I think people were socially more adroit and animated because, you know, they had to talk to each other the old fashioned way. All this, of course, is pure speculation, and may well be dead wrong.