This phoroptor is 100 years old. It was made in 1917 by the Woolf Instrument company of New York City at a time before AO or B&L were making phoroptors. In fact, the word phoroptor was not even coined yet. The only other company at that time that made phoroptors was DeZeng which made a simpler machine with no cylinder called a phoro-optometer. The Woolf ski-optometer was the first one in the world with cylinder. I sent it to an ophthalmic equipment repair service to have it refurbished and cleaned. It did not need repair, just cleaned and lubricated so the mechanism worked smoothly. It works perfectly now. The lenses are spotlessly clean. It comes with a book written by Daniel Woolf on how to refract using this instrument, published in 1921. Daniel was the son of Michael Woolf who invented this instrument. It was called a ski-optometer because it was made to make it easier to do skiascopy, an early term for retinoscopy. It has risley prisms which swivel into place, and a stevens phorometer that folds up and down for measuring vertical and horizontal phorias. The jackson cross cylinder was something you did manually using a hand-held. There are no maddox rods, something no sane optometrist ever uses anyway, so no loss. The cylinder range is plano to -2.00 with clips to hold trial lenses to achieve a higher power range. The sphere power range is -12.00 to +12.00, also with clips to hold trial lenses to achieve higher power range. The stand has wheels that all turn, all the knobs move freely, but it has surface rust….. It’s 100 years old. The item “Woolf ski-optometer refurbished with stand. Antique vintage phoroptor phoropter” is in sale since Saturday, March 17, 2018. This item is in the category “Business & Industrial\Healthcare, Lab & Life Science\Medical Specialties\Ophthalmology & Optometry\Autorefractors & Phoropters”. The seller is “dualkubotayahoocom” and is located in Middle Grove, New York. This item can be shipped to United States.
- Brand: Woolf
- Model: ski-optometer
- Country/Region of Manufacture: United States