How to become an inventor : $b Containing experiments in photography, hydraulics, galvanism and electricity, magnetism, heat, and the wonders of the microscopeWarford, Aaron A.
Science
How to become an inventor : $b Containing experiments in photography, hydraulics, galvanism and electricity, magnetism, heat, and the wonders of the microscope
Warford, Aaron A.
Scientific recreations
Aquatic and marine objects require bottles, and, as a general rule,
these bottles ought always to have wide mouths. Indeed, if there be no
shoulder at all, their purpose will be better served, as a small object
is very apt to be caught under the shoulder, and to give much trouble
before it can be removed without injury. Wide and short test-tubes
answer admirably for collecting; and it will always be advisable to
have a few small test-tubes ready fitted with corks, for the purpose of
isolating those specimens which might receive or cause injury by being
mixed with others.
To remove minute objects from one vessel into another is a very easy
process. Take a glass tube, mark off a portion about eight inches in
length, cut a little notch with a file, and bend it smartly, when
it will break neatly across, without leaving points or having the
regularity of its ends injured by gaps. Turn each end round and round
in the flame of the spirit-lamp, and you have an ordinary “pipette.”
The object of placing the ends of the tube in the flame is to render
the edges quite smooth and rounded.
Now mark off the same length of tube, and place the marked portion
in the flame, taking care to warm it well first, lest the sudden
heat should crack the glass. Keep it continually turning between the
fingers, and when it is quite soft, and of a fine red heat, draw the
hands smartly apart, and you will produce a couple of tubes tapering
to very fine points. Break off the tapering portions at any convenient
point, round the edges as before, and you will then have pipettes
suitable for small objects. As there are many specimens, especially the
smaller animalculæ, which have a habit of retiring into the remotest
corner, it is necessary to bend another pipette, so as to follow them.
For our own part, we prefer the pipette to be bent nearly to a right
angle.
The mode of using these simple instruments is as follows:--Place the
forefinger or thumb firmly on the large end, and push the point under
water. When the opening is close to the sought-for object, lift the
finger suddenly, and admit the air into the tube. The water will
immediately rush in at the lower end, and if the orifice has been
properly directed, will carry the object into the tube. The finger is
again applied to the mouth of the tube, and the object can be then
carried off.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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