MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

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

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?

Welcome Mike,

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

Welcome to the forum!

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

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?

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

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

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