The Bausch & Lomb Standard Teaching (hereafter ST) microscope is hardly the finest instrument one may buy, though it is a true and reliable stand. Carrying on the great tradition of simple and rugged construction begun with consumer microscopes designed for both student and arm-chair scientist the ST is descended from the FL (For Learning) of decades prior. For a look at a far earlier version see this previous post.
Immediately recognizable by its B&L slate-gray enamel one will always know an ST or FL upon sight. Telling one from the other is simple as well, meerly glance at the fine focus. If it’s located at the inclination joint it’s of the ST line. A fine focus on the arm above the joint is indicative of the FL line. There are a number of less immediate means of identification, the contruction of the foot, the mechanics of the coarse focus, the presence or abscence of a focusing stop, and the finish of the stage, to name a few. This is about the ST though, so on with that.

As with most B&L lines there are more variations on the basic ST stand than one would expect ranging through optical components to convience features. Apart from the regular ST there is also the Inclined model (IST) which carries a two piece body tube with prisim adjusted angled ocular tube. It’s called the ST for a reason though and the versions that could be had ranged from the very modest too three objective, condenser equipped models with mechanical stages suitable for entry level bacteriology, and other oil-immersion work. The most advanced models made use of the same objectives as the flagship Dynoptic line, their compromise was the slide focusing condenser. A slide focus condenser is not to be sneared at, but when used with an external illuminator one may be hard pressed to secure Khler illumination. Pressing a simple substage to its limits and restricting the user to a monocular system the advanced end of the spectrum is not where the ST shines.

At the lower end one finds the ST in its element. The not quite there, complecated yet inexpensive condenser set up is replaced with a simple rotaing disct diaphragm and either concave mirror or Optilume lamp. It’s worth mentioning that B&L with the ST line once more holds to the concave mirror only (for condenserless substages). The Optilume is well suited too, offering a bright field of view and on/off simplicity.
Perhaps the most laudable feature is one that more advanced users will never make use of. The ST microscopes take seriously the inexpert focusing of the student or novice microscopist. However much one drives home the importance of the microscopists obiesence there are those who will insist upon obtaining coarse focuse with eye at the lens, all such marksmen should be forced into carears as snipers. The ST line repesents the first standard Prefocusing Gage from B&L.

This simple addition has doubtless saved more than a few slides from the hazards of crashing objectives. The Prefocusing Gage is a humble projection from the body tube through which a theaded hole has been bored. A hexagonal set screw is fitted through the hole and a smaller flat headed set screw penetrates from the side to lock it in place. In use one need only to place a slide between the gauge and arm and gently rack down the coarse focus until contact is made. Removing the slide to the stage one will then find the specimen in rough focus and need only touch the fine focus knob until examination is complete. As with most every microscope of quality the objectives are parfocal so the utility of such a device should be obvious.

If one has other stands at their disposal one may see quickly where costs have been saved on the ST microscoscopes. The fine focus mechanism is mechanically identical to that of the Dynoptic but there is not graduation upon the adjustment. The body tube has been cast from a single mould so that nosepiece and ocular tube are permanently in place. The stage likewise is cast as one with it’s mount and may not be exchanged without likewise replacing the entire substage.

For those people out there who have and use an ST or IST here are some useful measurements from the manual (I’ll get around to uploading a scanned copy of it sometime).

First the table of approximate equivalent size of the pointer in the plane of the specimen:

Then the table of magnifications with the same 10x Huygenian eyepiece: