New Microscopy Book:
'Microscopical Mounts and Mounters' by Brian Bracegirdle
Published by the Quekett Microscopical Club, London, October 1998.
ISBN 0-9514441-3-1. Hardback, 25x17cm, 225 pages, includes 60 full page colour plates.
Cost in the UK £21. UK and US sole agents in footnote.
The author has collated forty years of notes acquired during his own research and handling of slides to produce this valuable reference book. The author has written on various aspects of microscopy including the 'History of Microtechnique' and more recently 'Notes on Modern Microscope Manufacturers'. This latest book is intended to complement and to be used in conjunction with these other two reference works.
Like other occasional publications of the QMC, the book has a plain sky-blue cover and has been well bound in hardback. The book's presentation is simple and easy to use. After a short preface and introduction, the bulk of the book is an alphabetical listing of mounters including individual mounters (amateurs and professional) and firms who made slides. These listings include biographical aspects of the mounters, addresses and references to other works where appropriate.
Useful entries on general aspects of slides and their subjects are also included on topics such as diatoms, diamond writing, fluid mounts etc. The text is complemented by fascimiles from pages of some of the older makers' catalogues.
The more prolific and/or famous slide mounters have extensive entries such as Flatters and Garnett, Enock and Dancer. Well known current mounters such as Northern Biological Supplies, Klaus Kemp (one of the few makers still selling arranged diatom slides) and Brian Darnton (who specialises in foraminifera slides) are also included. US makers are well represented including entries on current mounters such as Triarch and Carolina Biological Supply. The text entry for each mounter is cross referenced with the colour plates which show examples of their work.
The second half of the book comprises 60 full page colour plates showing almost a thousand microscope slides at nearly natural size from a wide range of mounters. Captions for each slide are on the facing page of the colour plates. The last six colour plates show photomicrographs of some of the slides' subjects including arranged diatoms and wonderfully laid out insect mounts.
The book is good value for a specialist work and should prove a valuable resource for anybody interested in this fascinating aspect of microscopy.
Purchasing the book
Sole agents in the UK for sales in Pounds Sterling (cost £21):
Savona Books, 9 Wilton Road, Hornsea, E Yorks HU18 1QU, England.
Sole agents for sales in US Dollars:
The Gemmary, PO Box 2560, Fallbrook CA 92088, USA
Published in October 1998 Micscape Magazine.
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