The Balplan Microscope

Bausch & Lomb Documentation


Binocular Balplan w/Bertrand
      lens, long w/d condenser,high-intensity illuminator

The Balplan was the flagship microscope made by Bausch & Lomb Inc. in the 1970's and 80's, before the merger of their microscope operations into the Leitz / Leica company. Since the Balplan is no longer supported by either company, the knowledge base for maintenance on this fine instrument has defaulted to the community of amateur and professional microscopists.


Two B&L eyepieces, marked only 10x W.F., silver with a black & brass slotted retaining ring at the top (eye lens); turned out to be very inferior to the proper eyepieces I obtained later, the kind marked 31-15-61, 10x W.F.

Balplan Instruction Manual

This (undated) manual probably shipped with each new microscope.



Balplan Service Instructions.

This manual dates from the early to mid 70's. A university department label lists receipt date "Sept 9 1977". 10x eyepiece, objective
Focus Mechanism

Balplan Price List

April 15, 1973

This document is scanned from an n-th generation photocopy of the original, and is barely legible in spots. If anyone has a cleaner copy they'd be willing to have put up, let me know...



LEGAL NOTICE: The documents on this web site were originally published without copyright by Bausch & Lomb Inc; my understanding is that they were made available to the public without restriction. This site is not affiliated with Bausch & Lomb or any other company past or present, and the enclosed information is provided gratis to the public as an educational and historical reference service only. Scanning and text entry errors may be present; no claims are made about the accuracy of the enclosed information.

4-hole nosepiece