A Bomem MB 100 based spectrometer suitable for chiroptic studies of polymeric materials and biologically significant molecules is described. The optical layout is designed to utilize its external collimated beam. Standard VCD optics consisting of KRS-5 polarizer and ZnSe PEM is mounted on an optical breadboard next to the spectrometer. A f/1 ZnSe meniscus lens serves to focus the beam on a small area MCT detector. The VCD spectra of an enantiomeric pair of (+)- and (-)-polymenthylmethacrylate measured as CCl4 solutions illustrate the instrument's high performance characteristics and represent the first observation of VCD of synthetic chiral polymers.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.