well, one thing for sure, this was never used, I'm certain of that, so I have no illusions of gold trapped in the filter. I did spend a whole bunch of time browsing the Bethlehem site, they don't even have a history page, and my search for old catalogs turned up nothing at all, just a few magazine ads, mostly for glass blowing equipment.
I also don't know the filter details, I have the one unopened filter shown in the photo but I also haven't found anything with that part number. nor did I find anything with the slightly different part number written on the box.
this could be for dental use, the reason I think it was more likely to be from a research lab is that the vendor I got this from mostly carries industrial surplus from clearing out labs that are being repurposed for a new job, he carries lots of RF cables, and analysis tools from radar development and laser/optical work, and some more normal things like high power connectors and switches - he rarely has stuff that is obviously medical