B&L BC continental compound microscope
Date: 1897-1908
Inventory Number: 1387
Classification: Microscope
Dimensions:29.2 × 10.8 × 14.7 cm (11 1/2 × 4 1/4 × 5 13/16 in.)
case: 39 × 17.8 × 20.5 cm (15 3/8 × 7 × 8 1/16 in.)
Accessories: ocular: 2; objectives (6): B. & L. 1/12, 1/2, 2, Reichert No. 3 and No 7a (missing), Spencer & Smith 1/4, 1; immersion oil in canister; blue filter; square cover glasses; dark-field stop; empty pillbox for cover slips; 5 Triple Alliance glass slides in paper; magnification table; case; key.
Bibliography:Microscopes and Accessories: Catalogue A
DescriptionThis is a Bausch & Lomb continental compound microscope, model BC. It in inclinable, has a brass arm and body, and a brass horseshoe-shaped base. The main tube is brass and has a nickeled draw tube graduated in millimeters and sliding in a cloth sleeve. The coarse focus is by rack and pinion. The fine focus is the B & L "standard triangular bar form," as described in the B & L catalogue of 1900. The fine adjustment screw has a graduated head.
The microscope has no nosepiece. Objectives presently with it are by B& L (1/12, 1/2, 2), Reichert (No. 3 and No 7a), and Spencer & Smith (1/4, 1). The ocular is a B & L 2X.
The stage is rectangular and heavily nickel plated. It is topped with vulcanite. One stage clip is missing. The substage apparatus is "complete" having an Abbe condenser with an iris diaphragm above it; plus below the condenser, a swing-out ring mount for filters with another iris diaphragm. This mount is also rotatable and adjustable by rack and pinion in the horizontal plane. The illuminating apparatus is mounted on a frame that also carries the plano-concave mirror. This frame is also adjustable by rack and pinion motion up and down.
This microscope is equipped with a standing wooden case. The case has a rack that stores seven canisters. Immersion oil in a glass bottle with a stopper and brush is housed in brass canister similar to those that hold objectives. It is marked, "IMMERSION / OIL." A drawer in the case holds a little cubic, blue box of square cover glasses. A red and white pillbox marked "Cover / glasses / square" is empty. Five plane glass slides are wrapped in brown paper, which has a Triple Alliance sticker. Other accessories include a dark-field stop and a blue glass filter.
Signedon foot, and objective, 1/12 immersion oil: Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. / NEW YORK. ROCHESTER, N. Y. CHICAGO. [the last very lightly on the foot]
on magnification table: BAUSCH & LOMB OPTICAL COMPANY / New York. Rochester, N. Y. Chicago.
on canisters: BAUSCH & LOMB OPTICAL CO. / ROCHESTER, N.Y. / NEW YORK CITY
on objectives, 1/2, 2: Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. / ROCHESTER, N.Y. & NEW YORK CITY
on eyepiece, 2: BAUSCH & LOMB OPTICAL CO.
on canisters for objectives, Nos. 3 and 7a: C. REICHERT / WIEN
on objective No. 3: C. Reichert. / Wien
on objectives, 1/4 and 1: SPENCER & SMITH
on sticker on wrapping paper of slides: B-L / Z / S [in divided prism trademark of Triple Alliance]
Inscribedcrudely engraved on objective, No. 3: Gray / Herb
on medallion on heel of foot: 32817
on fine adjustment: PAT. FEB. 16, 1897.
Historical AttributesThis instrument was used by Professor Peter Stevens in the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
Primary SourcesBausch & Lomb Optical Co., Microscopes and Accessories: Catalogue A (Rochester, NY: Bausch & Lomb Optical Co., 1900), 36-37.
ProvenanceProfessor Peter Stevens, Gray Herbarium, Cambridge, MA