Slide making

[malc]

I've been playing with the microscope for many years, and now I want to take some pictures, and finding this forum has spurred me on. Firstly though I would like to make my own slides and mount some things to look at, like wings, insect parts, pollen and daphnia for starters.

So, can anybody tell me how to start with what mountant should I use and what preperation to objects is required before they can be mounted. Some parts (insect legs) will be I'm thinking maybe too opaque, so how do I make them more transparant. Any thought on this subject would be gratefully received.

[rjlittlefield]

I'm sure that others will advise you on how to make things transparent and mount them permanently on glass slides. For my part, I'll mention that I can't recall the last time I did that. My images are all from unmounted specimens, mostly 3D, occasionally deposited, squashed, or dripped onto a microscope slide but never with a permanent mount. The fresh specimens and water mounts are transient, and the dried specimens mostly get secured into an insect storage box in case I want to look at them again later. Having monitored the forum for several years, I think that's true of most of the images posted.

--Rik

[naturephoto1]

Many years ago (between about 1984 to 1986) when I was doing pollen research on 65 million year old fossil pollen grains I used Shandon Mount. It is a clear mounting liquid that dries clear, as I recall does not discolor, is placed under a cover slip, works quite well, hardens, and I do not believe causes the sample to swell. But, it is toluene based.

https://www.thermo.com/eThermo/CMA/PDFs ... _23541.pdf

http://www.thermoscientific.com/ecomm/s ... 2933587_-1

http://www.fishersci.com/ecomm/servlet/ ... 29104_-1_0

Rich

[Olympusman]

I have found that using Canada Balsam on pollen grains acts as a solvent and pulls the pigments out of pollen grains. The technique I have adopted is to shake the pollen grains onto the center of a slide with an Exacto knife and make a border around them of balsam using a toothpick the dimensions of a cover slip to preserve them in air and not in the mounting medium.
One of the other members here sent me information on bleaching insect chitin using Potasium Hydroxide, but I don't have the notes with me here.
I haven't found any way to preserve protists and the commercial slides I have purchased have been useless. I'm always amazed that protists can be prepared for electron microscopy.

[malc]

Many thanks for those comments guys. I have been sent a bottle of Aqueous mountant and a bottle of Numount in Xylene, both made by NBS so I just need to know how to use them.

The hydrogen peroxide sounds like a good idea, and I guess that I should then go into alcohol, and then into zylene, before mounting in a mountant. I think I'll try that for a start anyway.

[Charles Krebs]

This book is dated (1958) but there is still a huge amount of good info here (and it is a free PDF download! )

You should probably keep in mind that some of the chemicals that are mentioned, and were commonly used in this time period, are likely considered quite toxic these days!

http://archive.org/details/handbookofbasicm1958gray

[malc]

Thanks Charles, an interesting book, and I shall surely read it through. Some of these older books are easier to understand than some of the more modern books I have found.

I've been reading some articles by a Walter Dioni (on Microscopy UK)on the use of Nail Polish as a mountant, and he presents such a good case that I think I'll give his methods a go before I try anything else. All I need to do is to get a bottle of it and some acetone and I'm all set for starters >smile<

[yvan_be]

Gray is a very nice manual on basic microtechnique. Another one covering allmost any object imaginable is Peacocck's Elementary microtechnique. Any edition is fine. I had the fourth edition by Saville Bradburry. The book is out of print, but it can be found second hand.

A long time ago, I compiled a little list of what I considered the most useful manuals in my library, writtten in English, German, French, Dutch. Most of these (if not all) are out of print, but can be found second hand

In English

Albert E. Galigher, Eugene N. Kozloff: “Essentials of Practical Microtechnique”, Lea&Febiger, Philadelphia, 1964, LCCCN: 64-19425

Saville Bradbury: “Peacock’s Elementary Microtechnique”, 4th edition, Edward Arnold, London, 1973, ISBN: 0 7131 2368 0

Ruth McClung-Jones (ed.): “McClung’s Handbook of Microscopical Technique”, 3th edition, revised and enlarged, Hafner Publishing Co., New York, 1950, reprinted 1961, LCCCN: 61-10086

John E. Sass: “Elements of Botanical Microtechnique”, 1th edition, McGraw Hill, 1940

James Brontë-Gatenby (ed.): “The microtomist’s vade-mecum (Bolles-Lee)”, 10th edition, The Blakiston Company, Philadelphia, 1937, 1946

Peter Gray: “Handbook of Basic Microtechnique”, The Blakiston Company, New York, Toronto, Philadelphia, 1952


En Français


Maurice Langeron: “Précis de Microscopie”, cinquième edition, Masson&Cie, 1934

Maurice Langeron: “Précis de Microscopie”, sixième edition, Masson&Cie, 1942


In het Nederlands


W. Van Cotthem, E. Fryns-Claessens: “Plantenanatomie in praktijk”, J. Van In, Lier, 1980, ISBN: 90 306 0861 7


Auf Deutch

Benno Romeis: “Romeis’ Mikroskopische Technik”, 16. Neubearbeitete und verbesserte Auflage, R. Oldenbourg Verlag, München, 1968, ISBN: 3-486-45796-9

Peter Böck: “Romeis’ Mikroskopische Technik”, 17. Auflage, Urban&Schwarzenberg, München, Wien, Baltimore, 1989, ISBN: 3-541-11227-1

Hans-Christian Burk: “Histologische Technik”, 6. Unveränderte Auflage, Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, New York, 1988, ISBN: 3-13-314306-9

Dieter Gerlach: “Botanische Mikrotechnik”, 3. Unveränderte Auflage, Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, New York, 1984, ISBN: 3 13 444903 X