Photomicrographic project
New Club member Richard Weedon is undertaking a photomicrographic project at University College London in the Earth Sciences Department and the Grant Museum which is funded by the Leverhulme Trust in conjunction with the Festival of Geology to be held on the 31st of October at UCL
He will be featuring the project demonstrating focus stacking and High Dynamic Range imaging through the microscope and would be most happy to meet some Quekett members for the first time on the day!
Gossip Meeting – September 2009
The theme of this Gossip Meeting was ‘Quality Anonymous Slides’. Bill Boorn (figure 1) spoke on a set of numbered, paper-covered slides (figures 2 & 3) that he had obtained many years ago from another Club member John Bunyon.
Although of high quality, the history of the slides remained a mystery until recently when Bill examined a copy of a recent catalogue by the Boorhaave Museum in Leiden, Belgium. In the catalogue were several sets of identical slides and, through correspondence with the museum, Bill established that the slides had been part of a wider collection of antique microscopes collected by Van Setters, a Dutch schoolteacher who lived from 1891 to 1976. In 1957 he sold the majority of his collection to the Boorhaave Museum, including the sets of paper covered slides.
Records show that Van Setters himself had bought the slides in 1927 from a notary in Leiden; how John Bunyon came to possess a set is not known, although presumably he was in direct contact with Van Setters and bought them this way.
The gossip meeting was as enthusiastic as ever with a range of displays of members’ interests; a selection of photographs are shown below.
Click on the images to see larger versions.
Figure 1 – Bill Boorn giving his talk
Figure 2 – Bill’s anonymous slides
from the Van Setters collection
Figure 3 – Close up of Bill’s slides
Figure 4 – Eric Hollowday and
Maurice Moss deep in conversation
Figure 5 – The Natural History Museum
microscope, providing an excellent
introduction to the microscope for
children and favoured by many
experienced members as a cheap
and effective pocket microscope
Figure 7 – Dennis Fullwood brought
one of the excellent Swift
Fieldmaster portable microscopes.
Figure 6 – An early pattern Watson interference objective
brought to the meeting by Derek Brown.
Derek had missed the previous meeting on special objectives
and hoped he could be excused for bringing this interesting objective a month late!
Surrey Wildlife Trust are running a course on Tuesday mornings this autumn, which can be taken as a whole or as single events, on wetlands and ponds which includes for example:Pond invertebrates on 15 Sept Basingstoke Canal - its ecology (by Pete Bickford) on 10 Nov Further details from Dawn Williamson 01483 795475 or info@surreywt.org.uk
Or visit their website (opens in new page) - see bottom of home page and follow link - "Wildlife courses - Autumn 2009"
The Carl Zeiss One day High Speed Imaging Workshop. This will be held in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Dublin on various dates between February 24th and 2nd April. See their site for full details.
The workshops are free, but booking is essential as places are limited.
Links provided by Kit Brownlee