NORTHERN ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF OPTOMETRY
DREXEL BOULEVARD AT FORTY-SECOND PLACE

CHICAGO

DR. WILLIAM B. NEEDLES
PRESIDENT

August 4, 1941.

Dy. &. L.. Allen
%Alton Clinic,
Alton, Illinois.

wath
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Dear Hub:

I must apologize for my deley in replying to your inquiry regard-
ing the matter of the Spencer microscope. The letter was forwarded
to me up in Douglas at the cottage and as I just came in yesterday,
this was my first opportunity to make an investigation.

My immediate reaction on reading the letter was that I could make

a very considerable saving on this outfit for your Uncle Phog, and
I must confess that this was because I had forgotten a great many
facts that I formerly knew. I have just finished a conversation
with the manager of the American Optical Company branch here in
Chicago, who is a friend of long standing and of whom we buy upwards
of ten thousand dollars worth a year not including the equipment
orders. You understand that American Optical Company now owns the
Spencer Company and their headquarters here are all in the same
suite of offices. After talking to the manager of the microscope
division, he called me back and gave me this.information. No
microscopes of the number which you specified in your letter are
available in this branch nor will be before November. They have
been promised.for.that date the delivery of about half the number
for which they have orders. The orders which they accept come ~
exculsively from laboratories in the various colleges; they do not
place any business through jobbers. He tells me that the discounts
allowed are very small, but they usually sell them to the colleges
at a figure which permits them to give the student a discount of
about ten percent. When we introduced our basic science courses
some few years ago, we installed about a hundred microscopes which
are loaned to the students. I recall now that we were a little
surprised to discover that we could not obtain from either Bausch
& Lomb or Spencer more than 15 percent discount on this large
order, although we were accustomed to receiving much higher discounts
on all other types of merchandise. This means that the microscope
business is practically unlike any other. I am assured that
practically all of the colleges which buy microscopes for sale to