Talk:Microscope slide

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Standard thickness[edit]

Hello, I changed the standard thickness from 1.2mm to 1.0mm. It is my assumption (at least in my line of work with Inverted Optical Microscopes) that the default thickness of a microscope slide is 1.0mm. Please correct and explain if I'm wrong. Pope 14:57, 21 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Manufacture[edit]

Quick question, are they manufactured like float glass? I would presume so. Samlaw (talk) 15:28, 28 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How-to material removed, seeks permanent home[edit]

A presume you plan just to move the "practical" stuff. Much of that is already at Wikibooks. - Marshman 18:20, 11 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed this "how-to" material:

begin

Once the specimen and water are combined on the slide, the cover glass is added. The cover glass should be placed at an angle to the slide, one edge touching the slide, and then lowered as if hinged there. If done properly, the water will force out any air as the cover glass closes over it, and no bubbles will be trapped beneath the glass. Although an occasional bubble might be tolerated, large numbers will make viewing the specimen difficult. Adhesive forces between the liquid and the glass will hold the cover glass firmly in place. Generally, only one drop of water is sufficient. Adding too much water will create a problem, as the affixing of the cover slip to the slide will depend on much weaker cohesive forces. There should be no excess water outside the cover slip, and the cover slip should remain in place when the slide is moved to the stage of the microscope, where it is held in place by stage^{[clarification needed]} clips or a mechanical stage arm.

Slides and slips must be kept very clean and held by the edges, as any smudges or fingerprints may be quite visible in the microscope and will interfere with the viewing.

Problems and solutions

Mostly air under the cover slip – too little water was used or the cover slip was improperly dropped onto specimen. Adding a drop of water to the slide at the very edge of the cover slip will result in water being taken in under the cover glass via capillary action. If numerous air spaces are still evident, it is best to start over.

Too much liquid under the cover slip – the cover slip slides around easily on the glass slide, and may fall off if the slide is not held perfectly level. A small piece of absorbent paper may be touched to the edge of the cover slip to remove the excess water, until the cover glass affixes to the slide.

The cover slip rocks on the specimen or is clearly not laying flat – either the specimen or something in the sample (a grain of sand, for example) is preventing the cover slip from coming down far enough to adhere to the slide. Focusing on this slide will be difficult. Possibly the specimen is not thin enough or evenly sliced. If a grain is present, it may be removed and the specimen re-mounted.

Fingerprints or dust may have been on the slide already which may affect the final results. In the case of dark field microscopy, dust particles and minute scratches can cause intolerable problems as sources of unwanted glare in the image. In such cases, freshly-cleaved mica may be used instead of glass to support and cover the specimen.

end

Hopefully it can be used somewhere else (wikibooks, wikiversity?). All the best, --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 22:36, 12 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What does "mounting" mean?[edit]

what do u mean by mounting will u please explain --Special:Contributions/124.123.242.181

It is explained in the lead section:

Typically the object is placed or secured ("mounted") on the slide, and then both are inserted together in the microscope for viewing.

"Mount" in this case has the roughly same sense as in "to mount a portrait in a picture frame". All the best, --Jorge Stolfi (talk) 17:11, 23 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

on the necessity of cover slips[edit]

I feel it should be pointed out that a cover slip is absolutely necessary with a microscope objective lens of 40x (NA 0.65) or greater power. All such objective lenses are optically designed for viewing through a glass cover slip of 0.17mm thickness. Failure to use a cover slip results in optical distortion of the image. An exception exists for a particular class of objective lenses that are labeled for use with no cover glass, typically having "NCG" engraved in the barrel of the lens. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.139.123.183 (talk) 18:55, 5 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed merge with Cover slip[edit]

Small page not really expandable - already mentioned on target page where would be better presented Iztwoz (talk) 09:28, 29 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Support - I don't think the world has enough cover slip sources to support a full article. We're better off pointing readers to an appropriate section of this article. Ajpolino (talk) 00:47, 8 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Done