WHAT IS THIS? Leitz optical device

[M. Valdemar]

Saw this at the flea market. I think it's some sort of microscope illuminator or projection device for microscope slides?

I'm stumped:

http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/37497/2000018124260571279_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000018124260571279)

http://aycu16.webshots.com/image/37215/2000032911200995248_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000032911200995248)

http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/36996/2000007664125017068_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000007664125017068)

[MikeL]

My guess, is it's a fluorescence microscope, a really old one.

[Brian Sweeney]

It looks like a piece of test equipment for optics. Just a guess. If the open space allos the optics to be put in a fixture and lowered into the optical path, I would even put a dime on my guess. Did you buy it?

I've got an old 1950's Nikon Autocollimator which essentially looks like a microscope with a mirror that you put on the far end of an optics bench.

[M. Valdemar]

They wanted $100 for it which seems cheap, but this is something I absolutely have no room for in my NYC apartment.

If I had unlimited storage space I would probably have filled several warehouses by now.

[wjgorham]

It looks like a micro projector. Note the turret condenser for the different power objectives and the powerful light source. It would be used in a teaching envoirnment to project pathology slides.

[John Robertson]

Used to be one exactly same at college. Projector for microscope slides.

[chris91387]

wonder how much for a good CLA?

[tjh]

I have a version of this that was thrown out by someone in my university - I'm a biology professor. A colleague and I climbed into the trash bin to rescue the carbon rods for the electric arc light source. My projection microscope is bit more complex that the one shown here but very much the same in function. Note the water cell with the opening on top. Water was used between the carbon arc light source and the microscope slide to prevent damage. My microscope has a mirror to direct the light beam vertically, then a slide mount for live specimens, and another mirror to bend the projected image horizontially to the screen.