Anybody remember this

Nope. What is it?

Oh yeah- place a drop of urine on it and the 'spyglass' thing reads the specific gravity.

How about spinning your own crits? Or spinning breast milk in the centrifuge to determine the calorie count??

Old school.

I work in peds heme onc and we still use that exact refractometer. Our kiddos need to reach a very specific spec grav in order to start some chemos and they tell us our clinitech urinalysis strip reader just isn't accurate enough. It always grosses me out a little having pee so close to my face.

A refractometer is used a lot in home brewing beer to check specific gravity before fermentation. I'm guessing the homebrew hobby is where a lot of the sales come from.

I also use one for my marine aquarium for salinity level

I've used it for hydration checks on our HS wrestlers during their weight certifications at the start of the season. If you're dehydrated, your weight isn't certified that day. It was a great way to help ensure safe weight loss at the HS level. Plus, once your weight was certified, you couldn't compete at a lower weight that season. A much safer approach than what my HS classmates were doing less than 10 years earlier to make weight.

I thought it was a light sabre.

Yup, and remember spinning hcts, and remember handling blood without gloves...anybody remember DeLee's (using your mouth for suction!) for mec aspiration at deliveries? :poop:

Remember it? Used it last shift I worked. Cotton ball in the diaper, crossing the fingers that the pee hits the cotton ball. Recently had an extended discussion about the fact that we don't actually label the cotton balls with name, MR, and DOB while we walk to the dirty U where the refractometer is kept. Someone actually thought it was a serious conversation. I just laughed. That said, they do work. I have one for my aquarium and you cannot beat it. ;-)