For the measurement of bacteria, a stage micrometer should be used with a camera lucida. The stage micrometer consists of a slip of thin glass ruled with a scale consisting of tenths and hundredths of a millimetre. The image is projected on to a piece of paper placed on the table, and the drawing made, and the object to be measured can be readily compared with the scale.
Fig. 167.—The Ramsden Micrometer Eye-piece.
In the Ramsden micrometer eye-piece, as previously explained, two fine wires are stretched across the field of an eye-piece, one of which can be moved by a micrometer screw. In the field there is also a scale with teeth, and the interval between them corresponds to that of the threads of the screw.
The circumference of the brass head is usually divided into one hundred parts, and a screw with one hundred threads to the inch is used. The bacterium to be measured is brought into a position in which an edge appears to be in contact with the fixed wire, and the micrometer screw is turned until the travelling wire appears to be in contact with the other edge. The scale in the field and scale on the milled head, together, give the number of complete turns of the screw and the value of a fraction of a turn in separating the wires.
In the micrometer eye-piece constructed by Zeiss, the eye-piece with a glass plate with crossed lines is carried across the field by means of a micrometer screw. Each division on the edge of a drum corresponds to ·01 mm. Complete revolutions of the drum are counted by means of a figured scale in the visual field.
In the micrometer used with Zeiss’s apochromatic objectives and compensating eye-pieces the divisions are so computed, that, with a tube-length of 160 mm., the value of one interval represents, with each objective, just as many micra (·0001 mm.) as there are millimetres in its focal length. A value of tables is therefore not required for these eye-pieces, since the focus of the lenses indicates their micrometer values within 5 per cent.
Fig. 168.—The Wollaston Camera Lucida.
The Camera Lucida will prove an extremely useful adjunct to the micrometer, and a large number of contrivances have been devised for its employment. There are those which project the image on to the surface of a sheet of paper provided for the drawing, and those which project the pencil and paper into the field of the microscope. The former method is that usually adopted. To draw an object, with either a Wollaston camera lucida or a neutral tint reflector, such as that of Beale’s, both of which are made to slide on and take the place of the cap of the eye-piece, as shown in [Fig. 168], with its flat side uppermost, the whole instrument must be raised until the edge of the prism is exactly 10 inches from a piece of paper placed upon the table; with the latter the instrument retains its vertical position, and the image of the object is thrown on the paper placed in front of the stand. The light must be so regulated that no more than is really necessary is upon the object, whilst a full light should be thrown upon the paper. Only one eye is to be used; and if one half of the pupil be directed over the edge of the prism, the object will appear upon the paper, and can be traced on it by a pencil, the point of which will also be seen. Should any blueness be visible in the field, the prism is pushed too far on, and should be drawn back till the colour disappears.