Three Twentieth Century Bausch & Lomb microscopes

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Radazz
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Three Twentieth Century Bausch & Lomb microscopes

#1 Post by Radazz » Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:41 pm

Here are three Twentieth Century Bausch & Lomb scopes for your pleasure, from the mid teens, the mid fourtys, and the late fiftys.
These old scopes are as much fun to look AT as they are to look THROUGH.
Enjoy!
Image
Last edited by Radazz on Fri May 25, 2018 8:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
Arnold, Missouri
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billbillt
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Re: Three Twentieth Century Bausch & Lomb microscopes

#2 Post by billbillt » Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:47 pm

WOW!!.. That is a wonderful collection.. Thanks for sharing...


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Re: Three Twentieth Century Bausch & Lomb microscopes

#3 Post by apochronaut » Fri Oct 20, 2017 3:20 pm

That is a very attractive little family portrait.
Jug handle microscopes had recently come into vogue in the beginning part of the previous century. B & L didn't show any in their 1904 catalogue but did in their 1907 catalogue. I don't know of any 1905 or 1906 catalogues around.
Your microscope is a model DDH, which at the time was the finest biological microscope that they made. In 1907 , B & L was still using inch measurements for their optics, and your microscope would have normally been supplied with 2/3( 10x) .25 , 1/6(50x) .85 and 1/12(95x) 1.32 N.A. oil objectives.
Your instrument seems to have been made sometime after 1907, because the nosepiece is of the circular type, whereas in 1907, B & L were still using the radial style of triple nosepiece, unless it is a later addition. You should be able to trace the date of manufacture for it from it's serial #.

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Radazz
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Re: Three Twentieth Century Bausch & Lomb microscopes

#4 Post by Radazz » Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:07 pm

Thanks, Apochronaught, the jug handle has a number stamped on the tube that extends to set the tube length. 111667 is the number, and shows 1916 on the date list.
The objectives appear to have been replaced at some point. The scope came with 5 Leitz Wetzlar 170/0.17 objectives, and 5 oculars.

The really interesting thing about this stand is that it is set up for photography. There is a camera tube that screws onto the tube at a perpendicular angle. When pushed in, a right angle prism extends into the tube, which intercepts the light path and sends it down the camera tube. At the other end is a cup with a standard 23.? mm eye piece tube. It looks like the tube rack would be used to align the tube with a camera. The cup is about the right size for a view camera lens. This would preclude using the tube rack for coarse focus, necessitating the rack that moves the stage up and down to focus. I presume the fine focus wouldn’t screw up the alignment unless you went crazy with it.

The S/N on the monocular scope is TB9909 which seems to be 1945. I have no idea what model this one is.

The binocular model T has a serial number of HB1548, which works out to be 1959.
I’m sure you caught the objectives, which had to fill in for B&l objectives. (No more on hand.)
They are from a set of 6 AmScope objectives that were marked down so far I couldn’t resist despite the gamble. I lucked out with these, I think, because they are all clear and sound, and parfocal as well.
No chromatic abberation that I can see, and the fov is in focus except for the very rim.
So, for less than $100 USD, they were waiting on the bone pile, and got used for the referb.

Both black scopes have the removable tube assembly.

I was vague on the dates, because I wasn’t sure the codes were for microscopes. The document talked about camera lenses.
Arnold, Missouri
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Radazz
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Re: Three Twentieth Century Bausch & Lomb microscopes

#5 Post by Radazz » Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:22 pm

Thanks, Bill
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Re: Three Twentieth Century Bausch & Lomb microscopes

#6 Post by apochronaut » Mon Oct 23, 2017 3:06 pm

[quote="Radazz"]Thanks, Apochronaught, the jug handle has a number stamped on the tube that extends to set the tube length. 111667 is the number, and shows 1916 on the date list. [quote]


The data on line, I see, suggests that serial # to be 1916 too. It's probably the same as you are looking at. ...How Old is That Microscope in the Window?

However, the 1916 catalogue, shows a very modified version of your microscope, with a completely different rounded base and a different model # attached to the closest looking stand offered.

Your stand, most closely resembles the stand listed in the 1911 catalogue https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... 1up;seq=48 .
It is likely that the optical tube assembly and photo tube assembly are later additions to an older instrument, possibly going back to 1907 or earlier.

By 1916, they were announcing their "new" apochromatic objectives.

Earlier, B & L and Zeiss had cooperated in a shared market arrangement, each manufacturing and marketing some of the others designs in their local markets. For a while, B & L produced Zeiss apochromats but by 1914, the relationship, disintegrated, for obvious reasons. The "new" B & L apochromats were likely at least partially swiped from Zeiss but under the circumstances, no one cared.

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Re: Three Twentieth Century Bausch & Lomb microscopes

#7 Post by Radazz » Fri Dec 15, 2017 4:07 pm

I have a question for you Apo, the objectives on the jug handle B&L are marked 170/
I assume the top tube needs to be set to 170 to match.
However, you know what they say about assume...

Would this be the case?

I am also assuming that a mismatch would result in spherical aberration?

Happy holidays and thanks for any info.
Radazz
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Re: Three Twentieth Century Bausch & Lomb microscopes

#8 Post by apochronaut » Tue Jan 16, 2018 5:25 pm

Sorry it took so long for me to see this. I found it , when I went to look at the pictures of your B & L scopes, in order to see what version of the fine focus mechanisms they had.

My understanding of the level of spherical aberration one will encounter with a 10mm difference in tube length is , very little for higher magnifications and moreso for lower magnifications, principally, those under 12X. I haven't compared the two extremes lately but recently I worked a Leitz 170mm 62X objective into a 4 objective system for a field microscope, that has a 160mm tube and 3 other 160mm tube objectives. The Leitz's magnification was perfectly in between the 2nd and 4th objectives in the scope and quite by accident, it was also perfectly parfocal with them( a C.B.S. and a Hacker). In the 160mm system, the Leitz 62X works out at about 58X but I really could notice no defects in it's image, when compared to the same objective used in another scope with a draw tube I could set at 170mm.

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