The Bausch & Lomb Binocular Ophthalmoscope of 1938 represents a significant chapter in the evolution of retinal examination technology — the era of the large, stand-mounted binocular indirect ophthalmoscope that preceded the head-worn instruments universally used in modern ophthalmology. Unlike the handheld direct ophthalmoscope which provides a highly magnified but narrow view of the retina, this binocular instrument provided a wide-field stereoscopic view of the peripheral retina, allowing the examiner to see retinal detachments, tears, and peripheral lesions that were simply invisible with direct ophthalmoscopy.
This Bausch & Lomb example was designed to sit on a desktop or stand, with the examiner looking through the twin eyepieces while positioning the condensing lens in front of the patient’s eye. The complex optical system — including the illumination source, beam splitter, and binocular viewing tubes visible in the photograph — gave the ophthalmologist a three-dimensional view of the fundus that was revolutionary for its time. Bausch & Lomb, one of America’s most storied optical companies founded in Rochester, New York in 1853, brought their considerable expertise in precision optical manufacturing to bear on this instrument.
The desktop binocular indirect ophthalmoscope was eventually superseded by the head-worn binocular indirect ophthalmoscope popularized by Charles Schepens in the 1950s — a design that freed the examiner’s hands for indentation and surgical manipulation and remains the standard instrument for peripheral retinal examination today. This 1938 Bausch & Lomb example is therefore a fascinating transitional instrument, representing the state of the art in retinal examination at the moment just before Schepens transformed the field.
