What is this thing?

September 21, 2010 12:48 PM

What are these optical devices?

My family came to own some funny optical devices. I haven't seen them in person, but they already put them up on ebay, and for the life of me I can't figure out what they are other than that they are some fancy optical things. And now I'm going crazy trying to figure out what they are.

Does anyone know what this Zeiss scientific looking thing is? It's labeled "Carl Zeiss - Jena, No. 6095". It looks a little like a microscope. Maybe it's something for looking at crystals? A telescope for tiny planets? Do you know what it is?

There's also some kind of mirrored thing here. The person who gave them to us was an artist so I'm thinking it might be something like a camera obscura or other device for copying images. Any ideas?

posted by abirae to Technology (8 answers total)

The first thing looks a little like those polarization devices you use for measuring sugar solution strength. The other looks like a contact printing frame.
posted by scruss at 1:06 PM on September 21, 2010

Second object is a lightbox. Place light behind contraption, place photographic plate on slanted tray, view. I'm still thinking about the second one.
posted by kiltedtaco at 1:07 PM on September 21, 2010

The first one looks like it might be a low power stereo microscope, but it's hard to say from the photo.
posted by pombe at 1:08 PM on September 21, 2010

Response by poster: Scruss, what would you call one of those things? A polarimeter?

kiltedtaco, are those just called light boxes? Are they used for drawing? For displaying glass slides?
posted by abirae at 1:16 PM on September 21, 2010

Scruss, what would you call one of those things? A polarimeter?

some google image searching leads me to believe that it might be called a "Disc Polarimeter"
posted by ArgentCorvid at 2:09 PM on September 21, 2010

Some googling of Zeiss history suggests that they first starting using that style trademark in 1904. At the end of WWII the Allied forces split the company by moving all its top scientists and upper management from Jena to Oberkochen in West Germany, and so they stopped using Jena in their trademark around 1945. The few remaining employees and machinery in Jena became part of the Soviet bloc and was renamed VEB Carl Zeiss Jena, whose products continued to use the old style trademark until reunification in 1990. So, anyway, unless for some reason this device was procured from a former Soviet republic it probably dates to between 1904 and 1945 and is most likely some kind of microscope accessory. Does the stand it's leaning on come with it or was that just something it was leaning on (i.e. does it appear to be usable on its own)? It sure seems like an add-on feature for a microscope but I suppose it could also be some kind of special purpose device.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:11 PM on September 21, 2010

It doesn't look sturdy enough to draw on. Probably for displaying (glass) photographic plates, or possibly large pieces of film. They used to be very very common in astronomy, as all observations were taken on glass plates prior to the development of CCDs. Some people even built light boxes into desks. I'm not sure how commonly used they were in the general photography business.

A few more pictures of the Zeiss instrument would be great, if you could get a hold of them. It's really hard to tell its function from these images. Polarimetry is a good guess, especially if the top wheel with the grippy stuff rotates.
posted by kiltedtaco at 2:58 PM on September 21, 2010

fwiw, I've spent much time with old astronomy equipment, and I don't recognize this. So probably not astronomy related.
posted by Tooty McTootsalot at 3:26 PM on September 21, 2010