Greetings from Cecil County Maryland

What is your microscopy history? What are your interests? What equipment do you use?
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msimone
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Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2018 1:56 am

Greetings from Cecil County Maryland

#1 Post by msimone » Sun Feb 04, 2018 11:04 pm

Greetings from Cecil County Maryland...

I am an analytical chemist by trade. My knowledge of microscopy has been learned by necessity. I used to be passably good with an SEM, did some AFM, lot of IR microscopy with reflachromat objectives. When it comes to optical microscopy I am nowhere near the same league as you people on this forum are. Trust me, McCrone isn't looking to hire me anytime soon....

So I'm asking for a little knowledge here. My daughter found me a Bausch & Lomb microscope in an antique shop and bought it for me as a Christmas present. As far as I can tell it seems it was a pretty good scope back in it's time. It is labeled as Bausch & Lomb, Rochester New York. And on the back of the head with LP3152 followed by some US pat. numbers, mostly relating to the gearing mechanisms in the stage. I read somewhere that the LP designation indicates manufacture in 1947 - although I could be wrong here. I saw similar scopes described as a B&L Dynoptic.

Here's the particulars:

Bausch & Lomb Achromat 8.9mm, 1.4mm N.A., Slide 1.5 - 1.6 mm condenser.
AmericanOptical 10x wide field eyepieces

Four objectives, all B&L:

B&L 30mm x 0.09, 3.5x
B&L 16mm x 0.25, 10x
B&L 4mm x 0.65, 43x
B&L Oil Immersion 1.8 x 1.25, 97X

It came in the original wooden crate with Scopelite illuminator (Bakelite Plastic as far as I can tell)..

To me this seems like it was once a pretty bad ass scope. Any thoughts? What have I got here?

V/R

Mike

apochronaut
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Joined: Fri May 15, 2015 12:15 am

Re: Greetings from Cecil County Maryland

#2 Post by apochronaut » Sun Feb 04, 2018 11:32 pm

Is the fine focus , up on the arm or down near the base?

The optical arrangement is a bit odd, in that the condenser is one of the higher end ones for B & L, at the time. It was expensive and was usually reserved to be used with objectives that needed it. None of yours do. A condenser of less than 1/2 the price would have sufficed, with no real loss of quality with those objectives. For photography , yes. Perhaps the instrument was originally used for micrography or at one time, had a complement of B & L apochromats or fluorites?

Charles
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Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2015 11:55 pm

Re: Greetings from Cecil County Maryland

#3 Post by Charles » Mon Feb 05, 2018 12:32 am

Welcome Mike,

Can you post a picture of your microscope? It would help with identification.

rstl99
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Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2018 3:45 pm

Re: Greetings from Cecil County Maryland

#4 Post by rstl99 » Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:58 pm

Welcome to the forum!

einman
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Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2015 1:03 am

Re: Greetings from Cecil County Maryland

#5 Post by einman » Wed Feb 07, 2018 10:52 pm

Welcome.
I have a Dynoptic and several Dynazooms. They are fine instruments.

msimone
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2018 1:56 am

Re: Greetings from Cecil County Maryland

#6 Post by msimone » Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:49 pm

Thanks all. I can't seem to add a picture of the microscope. I have a 2.8MB JPG picture but I can't add it here...limit here is 512KB. Any thoughts?

msimone
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2018 1:56 am

Re: Greetings from Cecil County Maryland

#7 Post by msimone » Tue Feb 13, 2018 12:29 am

Ok, maybe not an elegant solution but here's a picture of the microscope. To answer a previous question from apochromat, the fine focus is down near the base
Attachments
B&L Scope.PNG
B&L Scope.PNG (285.01 KiB) Viewed 4849 times

Charles
Posts: 1424
Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2015 11:55 pm

Re: Greetings from Cecil County Maryland

#8 Post by Charles » Wed Feb 14, 2018 12:32 pm

That is similar to my B&L discussed here:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1849
I believe these were top of the line research microscopes at the time for B&L

msimone
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2018 1:56 am

Re: Greetings from Cecil County Maryland

#9 Post by msimone » Thu Feb 15, 2018 12:00 am

Thanks for the reply!

Ultimately the optical quality is very good, although I have a hard time adjusting the pupillary distance because I have a big messed up head. Mechanically it is in as far as I can tell perfect condition, no rust, everything moves smoothly and stays put. I took it apart to clean it up and couldn't find a rust spot or blemish in the finish anywhere. The wooden case had a key on an Auburn University key chain, I am guessing it belonged to a professor at one point.

From my research, I think it dates to 1947 - does this sound correct to you?

My daughter paid $100 (of my money) for this at a local antique shop. I think she got a good deal.

Thanks,

Mike

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