Borescope from Lenox Instrument Company Helps Authenticate Art at the Louvre Museum in Paris


Trevose, PA, August 2009 - Conservators of Sculpture from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Andrew Lins and Melissa Meighan, traveled to the Louvre Museum in Paris, France to examine the working techniques of the major 18th century French artist, Jean-Antoine Houdon, who sculpted portraits of famous American patriots including George Washington, John Paul Jones and Ben Franklin. The conservators, pursuing their research on the Philadelphia Museum of Art's portrait of Ben Franklin, recently used a Lenox Universal Inspector Borescope System to examine the interior of a terra cotta portrait bust on display in the galleries of the Louvre. The borescope and its digital camera allowed them to see and document the finger prints and tool marks left from manufacture and fired into the clay, and therefore determine if the sculpture was the original modeled by the artist himself, or if it was made of clay hand pressed into a mold taken from an original.

The Universal Inspector from Lenox Instrument Co. is a high quality, expandable, fiberoptic borescope system that addresses a user's current and future inspection needs by being able to add different viewing angles or lengthen with thread-on extensions as needs change. This modular system can fulfill the functions of up to 18 conventional rigid borescopes in one affordable, convenient, state-of-the-art, borescope inspection system.

The base package of the Universal Inspector includes an eyepiece assembly, focus control, universal scope and either an interchangeable objective head or rotatable objective sleeve. The working portion of the scope is available in several diameter and length combinations: 4 mm diameter / 14-inch length; 5.5 mm diameter / 18-inch length; and 8 mm diameter / 18-inch length. The working scope length can be extended to as much as 60 inches with tread-on extensions.

Six viewing heads are available and allow inspection via direct, right angle, forward oblique or retrospective viewing angles with 10-degree to 85-degree fields of view. 360-degree, rotatable, objective sleeves are available with right angle, forward oblique or retrospective viewing angles.

A complete selection of light sources, cameras, camera adapters, and recording / monitoring equipment are available for all Lenox Rigid Borescopes. Lenox also offers a complete range of "micro" borescopes available in diameters as small as 0.020 inches (0.5 mm).

Each Universal Inspector is designed, manufactured and serviced in-house by Lenox Instrument, and is backed by an industry-leading two-year warranty.

For more information, please contact Lenox Instrument Company, Inc., 265 Andrews Road, Trevose, PA 19053-3427 USA; Tel: 1-800-356-1104 or 215-322-9990; Fax: 215-322-6126; E-mail: sales@lenoxinst.com; Web: www.lenoxinst.com.

For more than 80 years, Lenox Instrument Company has been serving the defense, power generation, and industrial markets by solving their most challenging, and often, hostile remote image acquisition. Located outside Philadelphia, in Bucks County PA, Lenox is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of premier Remote Vision Instruments (R.V.I.) Lenox offers a full line of borescopes, videoscopes, and light sources. Lenox also manufactures FireSight, our exclusive line of high temperature boiler and furnace camera systems. All Lenox products are factory-serviced and backed by industry-leading warranties.

Reader Service Inquiries: Please forward to Bill Lang, Lenox Instrument Company, Inc., 265 Andrews Road, Trevose, PA 19053-3427, USA; Fax: 215-322-6126; E-mail: sales@lenoxinst.com. Thank you.

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