Abstract
LONDON. Royal Microscopical Society, November 17.—M. T. Denne: A new apparatus for casting paraffin imbedding blocks. It consists of a jacketed chamber in the upper surface of which troughs are formed, fitted with frames or ‘lifters,’ and adapted to receive the wax. A second reservoir contains water heated to a definite temperature by gas or electricity, and this is so arranged that it may be raised to fill the jacketed chamber or lowered to empty it. In operation, the hot water is caused to enter the jacketed chamber, the troughs are filled with melted paraffin, and the objects arranged in the ordinary way or oriented under a Greenough binocular, the paraffin being maintained at the correct temperature meanwhile. When ready, the reservoir receives the hot water, and cold from a main supply is forced into the jacket causing very rapid cooling. A second momentary application of the hot water from the reservoir frees the blocks by superficial melting, and they are lifted out of the troughs.—C. Tierney: Caballero's technique for mounting diatom and other type slides. The method consists essentially in manipulating the specimens with a fine hair in a hermetically sealed chamber attached to the microscope. A petri dish with a raised platform in the centre, on which the specimens and prepared cover-glass are placed, is filled with mercury. From the nosepiece of the microscope is suspended a wire carrying the hair and a glass cylinder which, when the body-tube is lowered, enters the mercury, thus forming a sealed chamber free from all air currents, condensation, and dust particles.
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Societies and Academies. Nature 119, 70–71 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/119070b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/119070b0