Glass needle vs. other pointy things

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Beatsy
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Location: Malvern, UK

Glass needle vs. other pointy things

Post by Beatsy »

When "normal folk" (i.e. not PMN members :) ) see my diatom arrangements many ask how I move the diatoms around and hazard a guess that it's done with a pin or needle. Cue astonishment when I explain most diatoms are far smaller than the point of a typical pin.

After a real bad run of failures trying to make hand-pulled glass needles, I finally regained my mojo today and knocked up a goodly batch. I've never actually measured the tips of these needles before - so I had a look. A fresh needle point tapers to a micron or less. After some use selecting diatoms it wears down to a rounded point of about 2-3 microns and will stay that way for a long time (usually until I clumsily break it).

Here's a rough composite comparing a glass needle to some other "pointy things" I had kicking around. These are laid over a strew of large diatoms from Newport Beach to give a scale comparison. Images all taken with a 10x mitty on a 135mm tube lens and camera in crop sensor mode.

Image

zzffnn
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Post by zzffnn »

Nice image and very well made glass needle!

I image it would be very hard to keep the end straight like that.
Selling my Canon FD 200mm F/2.8 lens

JH
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Post by JH »

Nice and interesting idea!
Regards Jörgen
Jörgen Hellberg, my webbsite www.hellberg.photo

siliconGary
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Post by siliconGary »

Nice image. I am impressed you could arrange all those tips without them touching each other.

abpho
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Post by abpho »

Wow. I never knew. Guess I'll scratch photographing diatomes of my list. (Way too small. Lol.)
I'm in Canada! Isn't that weird?

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

Nice image. I am impressed you could arrange all those tips without them touching each other.
:lol:
composite
= he didn't!
Chris R

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