Help ID this mystery machine Bausch & Lomb

I'm wondering if this is worth saving. Problem is I'm not sure what it is or what it does. Any ideas?

This Machine is in the remains of an optics shop. Looks like it was set aside quite a few years ago.

Can't extract very much information from your photographs. They are rather dark and muddy. A decent picture of the nameplate would be a start. B&L still has a presence on the net, and is a current player in the eyecare world. How about contacting them?

-Marty-

We Need Better Pictures Than That !

This thread is immediately interesting but we need better pictures than the ones you've posted so far. Bigger images with better lighting, please !

It wasn't until I got to the image of the nameplates that I figured out they were rotated 90 degrees......

Speaking of the nameplates, please carefully transcribe everything on them, including the model and serial numbers. There are people on this forum whose abilities with internet searches are very impressive; give them the data they need to turn their skills to this task.

Bausch & Lomb made a number of items for the WW2 effort that were sort of "not in their normal line of business," so a widely-divergent set of products must be considered.

John R.

Looks like some kind of precision burnisher. It also looks like there is a patent number on the dataplate. A clear image of the dataplate would tell a lot about the machine.

Thanks for the interest guys. This machine is in a closed shop that is now mostly full of trash and hazardous waste. The area it is in was pretty much used as a bone yard. The owner of the shop is now in a nursing home and I have been helping his wife where I can. Yesterday I pulled 600 lbs of old seized up motors out of there to uncover this machine. At a nickel a lb. that was a real money maker. So the lighting is what it is. All I had was my phone and that area is so nasty I'm not taking my good camera in there.

I'm not sure why the pictures ended up sideways tried it twice and I guess that's the way it is. The machine is filthy and a bit hard to get to.

So the data plate, the serial number is zc 20 . The type is 21-13-45.
The space for the patent number is actually blank and so is the space for the csa number. I haven't found any other number or info on it.

One hint if you look close at the last pictur you will see a 1/4 hss cutter . There is a motor in the base which turns something???? Via flat leather belt. I just haven't been able to pull it out to really figure out what the heck the thing is.

I'm curious enough to drag it home if I can come up with enough of a clue of what it is and what I might be able to do with it. But it's getting scrapped any day now.

I played with this picture a little maybe it'll help.

And maybe it won't.

Trying again to rotate the puctures

I used an electronic microscope that would strike a arc like a welders arc for viewing and photographing carbide sharpened edges for grinding chips. I think it was a Bausch... Most would be surprised how bad an edge looks at a fer hundred or 1000 magnification.. edges that feel fingernail perfect can be full of grinding chip-outs.

Ne i can't tell from the photos if that is one.

michiganbuck said:

I used an electronic microscope that would strike a arc like a welders arc for viewing and photographing carbide sharpened edges for grinding chips. I think it was a Bausch... Most would be surprised how bad an edge looks at a fer hundred or 1000 magnification.. edges that feel fingernail perfect can be full of grinding chip-outs.

Click to expand...

Man, I hope your eyes weren't getting hit by UV radiation from the arc. How long ago was that?

Late 60s but the shop opened in about 55 so it may have been that old. Yes the glass looked black as coal until that arc was struck.. The camera was a Polaroid so one could have the photo PDQ. For a time Carboloy was the only outfit that could make the edge requirement.

Well it's in the back of my truck. Along whith a bunch of other junk. But we might have figured out what it does. It appears to have been used to cut concave and maybe convex laps for grinding lenses.under all the gunk it looks to be all there and in good condition.

Milland said:

Man, I hope your eyes weren't getting hit by UV radiation from the arc. How long ago was that?

Click to expand...

The damaging UV will not go through glass. When they detonated the first atomic bomb, Richard Feynman looked for the truck with the thickest windshield and sat behind it with no other protection. He had a super case of retinal fatigue, which went away after a while, but no corneal burn.

Bill

Look up the patent number on google.

It is probably a lap cutter. Some eyeglass shops could finish or modify a eyeglass lens to add a cylinder power or change a refractive power. This is still done by wholesale optical laboratories. To the best of my knowledge B&L is totally out of the precision optical and eyeglass business. I think all they make today are contact lenses, contact lens supplies and some eyecare products