Anyone know refractometers really well?

[RONCGIZMO]

I have this B&L Refractometer and I can't seem to find ANYTHING about it..best I can tell (so far) is it might be a brix scale 0~25%

the top reads:

Bausch & Lomb Opt. Co

Rochester NY USA

Range 0 to 25% (I'm assuming this is brix?)

CB9293 (I assume this is a date code and serial number)

It appears to have a gray powder coat
and it also has a thermometer looking thing
mounted to the right side of it with a scale of:

+1.5 +1.0 +0.5 0 - 0.5 -1.0

it reads just like that left to right.

It also has two adjustment screws just past
the focus ring. one thumb screw has a hole
in the center and the other one don't (it's solid)

I'll be right back with a few photos.

I'm not sure if I can use this with saltwater but I'm more
Curious about the refractometer itself.

Thanks for your help.

[Billybeau1]

Boomer's pretty good at this stuff, but he's not online at the moment.

I'm sure you'll get an answer within 12 hrs. or so.

Of course, this is the Holiday Season.

24 hrs tops.

My guess is, no you can not use this to measure seawater.

[RONCGIZMO]

[RONCGIZMO]

Thanks Billy, I'm in no rush. The price was right so I grabbed it...lol

[Mavrk]

when you look through it, what does the scale say? usually it will say salinity on the bottom of the scale when you look through it.

It looks like all the other refractometers out there. Drop some water on the lens, cover it, then look through and read. The little screw is for calibration. I believe the little vial is a thermometer for temperature correction, but I could be wrong.

Hopefully someone more familiar with this unit will pipe in. Good luck.

[RONCGIZMO]

The scale doesn't give me any indication of what it's for..
it just starts at zero and go's up to 25

[Mavrk]

Are you sure it is for salinity? It sounds like it might be for measuring alcohol.

[RONCGIZMO]

No I, not sure at all..I'm thinking Brix but I don't know for sure..

[Mavrk]

I think it is Brix, but I think it may be for alcohol.

Try measuring some water. You are looking for a little over 6.5 (6.7 Brix equates to 1.026006 SG... 6.5 is 1.02523)

The formula is SG = 1.000019 + [0.003865613(Brix)
+ 0.00001296425(Brix) + 0.00000005701128(Brix)]


Most people estimate this using the "multiply by 4 rule". For example a brix of 6.5 would be estimates as:
6.5 x 4 = 26 which is 1.026 SG

However, in this field, estimating is not always great if you can get things more exact

[Mavrk]

That is... measure some saltwater

[Boomer]

RONCGIZMO

Tha is one very nice refract, very old and rare You can not tell what that scale is it is just a wild guess. Here is an example;

http://www.topac.com/palspecial.html

The thermometer looking thing I think is a thermometer and is giving you temp off-set error for the calibration temp of the refract.

I want to know what this thing is and will make some calls this week I have never seen anything like it before and I know of no B&L handheld refract ever made And I can not find a single link, anywhere, of any known handheld B & L I have been looking for an hr B & L nowdays is only in the eye business and has sold everything else. Bausch & Lomb is a company falling apart at the seems in recent years. All of their stuff is gone, refracts , rifle scoops, binoc's etc. all sold to other companies. If something has B & L name on it is not not really a B & L. For example. Bushnell now owns B & L scopes, etc. and Thermo now owns the refract division. These companies are just selling and living on the B & L name by permission. There are 12 companies now using their name from the old B & L original divisions. Some have renamed them recently, such as the B & L refract division is now called Adde refracts at Thermo.

[RONCGIZMO]

I think it may need some major calibrations lol

I get zip with tap or salt right now...I assume all refractometers work the same, right? SG wise that is. correct me if I'm wrong but all they do is change the lens with the scale on it, right?

I tested it the other day at a buddy's place and it read 9.4 his refractometer read 1.024 we thought the 9+% seemed a bit
high but we also never dealt with this scale..

Now I get no reading and the scale is slightly askew. I took out the eye peace and loosened the adjustment screws a bit it looks like an easy fix when I have a few minutes I'll give it a shot and retest the water.

[RONCGIZMO]

Thanks Boomer, This is all the information I could find on the B&L hand model..all the rest seem to be bench top.

http://www.humboldt.edu/~scimus/Refr...6L_HandRef.htm

[RONCGIZMO]

BTW, I got it with the original leather case (bad condition) and a long chain that screws into the underside of the unit (it looks like a real long dog tag chain)

[Boomer]

me if I'm wrong but all they do is change the lens with the scale on it, right?

Yes, that is correct. Refracts are all a function of the RI ( Refractive Index) number. Any solution at x concentration has a Y RI. They then convert that number to x, y or z scale.

Here are some examples of RI vs x,y or z. Tables 1, 2 and 3

Refractometers and Salinity Measurement
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-12/rhf/index.php


I see the website has another similar to yours for Honey.
I also see it is a 1960's model and I was right at my guess on the thermometer error off-set It is mentioned here

http://www.humboldt.edu/~scimus/Refr...nd_Cenco50.jpg

Get some PinPoint 53 mS solution and try that. That is exactly 1.0264 at 77 F and then we can go from there. For starts, use the equation that Mavrk gave to see if it fits a Brix scale once calibrated. If it is a Brix scale then 6.57 = 1.026. I'm thinkin' it may not be a Brix scale but some other sugar scale.

A 25 % Brix solution is 25% (w/w) To put it simple, there are 25 grams of sucrose sugar added to 75 grams of water to make a 100 grams of solution = 25 % . A 10 % scale or a 10 reading on the meter would thus be 10 grams of sucrose and 90 grams of water.

[RONCGIZMO]

Thanks again Boomer, I try to do this tomorrow.

What got me even more curious about this thing is I can't find much
if anything at all.

Plus it looked kinda cool...lol

[Mavrk]

Try dropping some wine on the lens and see if you get a reading. I still think that the 0 to 25% sounds like alcohol content.

[Mavrk]

sorry double post

[Mavrk]

It could be for sugar content as well.

It seems you might have a museum piece, so I don't know if you want to use it

check out this site:

http://www.humboldt.edu/~scimus/Refr...&L_HandRef.htm

[Boomer]

He already posted that link

[Mavrk]

Originally posted by Boomer
He already posted that link

Duh... How did I miss that. Thanks.

[RONCGIZMO]

Sorry guys, I had no time to mess with it....I had to play catch up on a few things...but I'm going to see what I can come up with today...