Hello from Georgia (US State)

What is your microscopy history? What are your interests? What equipment do you use?
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BramHuntingNematodes
Posts: 1538
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:29 am
Location: Georgia, USA

Hello from Georgia (US State)

#1 Post by BramHuntingNematodes » Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:54 am

Hello everyone I was convinced to register after I saw that someone here was thinking of grinding some raw calcite to make some Nomarski prisms and I was thinking about the exact thing a few days ago. Anyway, the microscope I have been using is a little interesting. It's a Bausch and Lomb Dynoptic. Pretty usual, except that the model number suggests it was made in 1942. In addition, it has period badges from the Hanford Engineering Works and more recent ones from Brookhaven National Laboratories. I got it for $50 from an estate sale in North New Jersey and am pretty convinced it is a Manhattan Project scope dont disabuse me of this notion i am sensitive. Anyway, none of the optics were original, so I have tried to outfit it with period appropriate apos and flourites. The condenser was not in great shape. I kept it but have since taken a Wild M11 aplanatic condenser I got on the cheap to a lathe to make it fit. You have to narrow it's diameter and lengthen the cuff and chamfer the top lens housing it's not fun next time I will just get a nice Spencer aspheric or something.
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Here it is with a B and L stereo microscope circa mid-fifties in the background. That one is pretty fun also. The neat thing about these 12.5 compens eyepieces is the "eyepoint" is a little more than two centimeters out so put on your glasses! I don't know exactly why that is, but just the 12.5 in this vintage has that feature. It's exactly the same as the "High Point" eyepieces that B&L sold.

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Hanford badge and crude numbering.

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Brookhaven badge.


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model number beginning with "UB." I suppose the headpiece may have been changed out at some point-- certainly the eyepieces were. They were unsigned and marked "10FW" rather than "10WF." They didn't work great.

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The turret with the Wild condenser in the bottom. It's a good condenser! Also, the mechanical stage is graduated but not with a factory gauge. Rather, someone took a metal ruler, drilled it out and screwed it on? There's marks on the back of it too.

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My most recent project completed: homemade Kohler illuminator. Hastings triplet from my college geology days as a collimator. Who else would have made this triplet?

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1942 Bausch and Lomb Series T Dynoptic, Custom Illumination

WhyMe
Posts: 147
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2019 10:04 pm
Location: Eastern USA

Re: Hello from Georgia (US State)

#2 Post by WhyMe » Tue Jan 21, 2020 2:12 am

Welcome to the forum!

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Rossf
Posts: 363
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2020 12:39 am
Location: Victoria Australia

Re: Hello from Georgia (US State)

#3 Post by Rossf » Tue Jan 21, 2020 12:22 pm

Hello-that is one seriously cool looking scope-very unusual and you were obviously meant to adopt this stray that could have been in landfill rusting...great bargain. I just showed my scope to the forum the other day-There’s a “show off your scope” section that’s fun to read-you can really feel the enthusiasm as people share their setup.
Cheers

BramHuntingNematodes
Posts: 1538
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:29 am
Location: Georgia, USA

Re: Hello from Georgia (US State)

#4 Post by BramHuntingNematodes » Tue Jan 21, 2020 4:56 pm

Thanks fellows. As you might be able to tell from my username, Ross, I am also interested in soil microbes, although more from a natural history point of view. I thought to myself several years ago that I should become familiar with all the plants and animals in my backyard and I have a long way to go. I am also looking out for bursaphelenchus xylophilus which I suspect is being transported on long leaf pine straw being shipped in from Florida as landscaping material.
1942 Bausch and Lomb Series T Dynoptic, Custom Illumination

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Rossf
Posts: 363
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2020 12:39 am
Location: Victoria Australia

Re: Hello from Georgia (US State)

#5 Post by Rossf » Tue Jan 21, 2020 11:20 pm

Hey Bram trying to sleuth a problem microbe is admirable use of time with a scope- we have that bad cinnamon virus which is killing our native grass trees in national parks and I’ve tried to access the condition of soil around the dying trees-most dying ones were near walking tracks and I suspect soil compaction makes them far more susceptible- Often take a scope camping with me
-getting into good compost making really gives you a smorgasbord of microbes to look for-I’m always looking for nematodes also-I love all the kooky variations in flagellates and always get excited when I find a really different amoeba. Aerobic fungi also-here’s a pic I took of fungal spores germinating in a 3 day compost tea brew.
Cheers
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Dave S
Posts: 280
Joined: Wed May 22, 2019 11:06 am
Location: Suffolk, UK
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Re: Hello from Georgia (US State)

#6 Post by Dave S » Wed Jan 22, 2020 1:53 pm

Hi Bram, and welcome :)
Suffolk, UK

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