The following extremely simple plan for an immersion illuminator was
first brought to the notice of microscopists a few years ago, and,
in the absence of the inventor, was kindly described by Prof. Albert
McCalla, at the meeting of the American Society of Microscopists, at
Columbus, O. It consists of a small disk of silvered plate glass, c,
about one-eighth of an inch thick, which is cemented by glycerine
or some homogeneous immersion medium to the under surface of the
glass-slide, s. Let r represent the silvered surface of the glass disk,
b, the immersion objective, f, the thin glass cover. It will be easily
seen that the ray of light, h, from the mirror or condenser above the
stage will enter the slide and thence be refracted to the silvered
surface of the illuminator, r, whence it is reflected at a corresponding
angle to the object in the focus of the objective. A shield to prevent
unnecessary light from entering the objective can be made of any
material at hand, by taking a strip one inch long and three-fourths
of an inch wide and turning up one end. A hole not more than
three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter should be made at the angle. The
shield should be placed on the upper surface of the slide, so that the
hole will cover the point where the light from the mirror enters the
glass. With this illuminator Möller's balsam test-plate is resolved
with ease, with suitable objectives. Diatoms mounted dry are shown in
a manner far surpassing that by the usual arrangement of mirror,
particularly with large angle dry objectives.
Ottumwa, Ia.