After many experiments I have settled upon a flat, broad-based lamp of good oil-holding capacity, which is attached to a heavy retort stand with movable arm, enabling it to be carried to any desired height. A duplex burner and a tall chimney, producing perfect p232 combustion, afford a light of thirty candle power, rendering possible the following average exposures with the plates I am now using, the variation in time being caused by differing densities and actinism of the tissues or substances to be photographed:
| 1½ inch objective | 3 to 5 seconds. |
| 2⁄3 inch objective | 7 to 90 seconds. |
| 4⁄10 inch objective | ½ to 3 minutes. |
| 1⁄5 inch objective | 2 to 7 minutes. |
| 1⁄10 inch objective | 4 to 10 minutes. |
This lamp produces sufficient light for use with the highest powers, requiring the employment of a diaphragm to reduce its intensity. Too brilliant an illumination, flooding the field with diffusive rays, will almost certainly produce a blurred and indistinct image.
Microscope, camera and lamp being ready for use, it becomes necessary to provide a suitable support for each, in order to form a complete working outfit. Some writers have described and illustrated their apparatus as being carried upon two or more separate tables or trestles. This I have found to be a most objectionable method in our city houses, since the vibration produced by passing vehicles is unevenly communicated to camera and microscope, producing inevitably a disturbed or blurred image, especially when high powers are employed. By adopting, however, a long, solid platform, carrying all the separate parts of the apparatus, this objectionable feature is removed, any vibration is communicated to camera and microscope alike, and there is no blurring of the resulting image whatever. In my apparatus this platform is about five feet in length, with a raised portion at one end, p233 upon which the camera is firmly clamped by a milled head operated from beneath. The cone front extends toward the platform, upon which the microscope (inclined horizontally) is secured at such a height that its tube precisely enters the middle of the cone. Thus, a straight line drawn from the object upon the stage through the microscope tube and camera should fall upon the centre of the focussing screen, and if all the parts are properly put together this will be the result, and the whole field will be equally illuminated when the lamp is placed in position.
The stand of the latter is not secured to the platform, but is left free to be moved about and placed nearer to or farther from the microscope, as may be found necessary to secure the best results. A bull's-eye condenser upon a movable stand placed between the lamp and the stage of the microscope, is necessary to concentrate the light upon the object, or upon the achromatic condenser when the latter is used and to aid in the equal illumination of the field. The latter is of great importance, since the result of an uneven illumination will be a negative of differing densities in different parts, marring its beauty, and at times rendering it utterly worthless. Too much stress cannot be placed upon the necessity of securing an even, brilliant light of proper intensity for the object under examination.
The arranging of the object in the centre of the field (under a low power) and the coarse adjustment of focus are done with the bellows tightly closed, which brings the focussing screen so near to the microscope that, whilst the operator sees the object thereon, his hand can readily reach the milled head, controlling the p234 stage and other movements. But when the bellows is extended to the length affording the desired magnification it will be found that the object, whilst retaining its central position, has lost its sharpness, necessitating a final and careful focussing which is no longer possible in the same manner as before, since the ground glass and microscope are so widely separated that the one cannot be reached whilst looking into the others. Some special device becomes necessary in this emergency, and many have been made, mostly complicated and costly. The method I have adopted is the old and simple one of a fine cord passing around the periphery of the milled head controlling the fine adjustment, in a groove cut for that purpose, thence through a series of screw eyes to the rear of the frame-work carrying the bellows extension, where it is kept taut by a couple of small leaden weights.
The slightest tension upon this cord causes a corresponding movement of the fine adjustment, and nothing can exceed the delicacy of its working or its freedom from derangement. A fine fishing, line makes an admirable cord for this purpose.
Having sketched the various portions of the apparatus and brought the whole together into complete form, a few random extracts from my note-book may not prove uninteresting or valueless to some who are working in this direction.
Gelatine plates for photo-micrography. The requisites of a perfect plate are, great sensitiveness, combined with extreme latitude in time of exposure, and density in development. It should be of a fine texture, showing clearly the most delicate lines and markings, p235 evenly coated and free from spots or blemishes of any sort.[2]
[2] The Stanley dry plate has all these qualities in the highest perfection.