Annual Exhibition of Microscopy

Saturday 19th October 2024

The Club’s Annual Exhibition of Microscopy (Quekex), was held for the fourth time at Elm Court Youth & Community Centre, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. There were demonstrations and exhibits by members, displays of the photomicrographs, videos, slides and artwork submitted for awards, two lectures, and plenty of gossip.

Elm CourtElm Court

The President was not able to attend, and so Phil Greaves opened the event by sounding the Quekett horn.

Phil Greaves with the Quekett hornPhil Greaves with the Quekett horn

Exhibits

Nigel Ashby showed five black and brass monocular Watson microscopes, with contemporary Watson slides and copies of relevant catalogue pages. There were three Medical or College microscopes, and two Histological microscopes.

Watson Medical or College MicroscopesWatson Medical or College Microscopes

Watson Histological MicroscopesWatson Histological Microscopes

Joan Bingley showed items relevant to recent meetings. She used a trinocular Brunel compound microscope to show a J. B. Dancer microphotograph slide, No. 28 “The Creed”.

Joan Bingley’s exhibitJoan Bingley’s exhibit

Following on from the Down House meeting, Joan used a binocular Wild M11, a simple Brunel stereomicroscope and an old dissecting microscope to show slides of insectivorous plants. She also provided notes on sundew (Drosera), bladderwort (Utricularia) and butterwort (Pinguicola).

Joan Bingley’s exhibitJoan Bingley’s exhibit

Slides of insectivorous plantsSlides of insectivorous plants

Joan also brought a book, Carnivorous plants of Britain and Ireland by Tim Bailey & Stewart McPherson.

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Gordon Brown used three small digital microscopes with built-in screens to show a piece of the skull of a minke whale, microfossils from Coralline Crag, and a slide that had made of a section of a branch of Fraxinus excelsior (European ash).

Gordon Brown’s exhibitGordon Brown’s exhibit

Gordon also showed a lump of Coralline crag, and the large metal sieve that he uses to extract pseudoscorpions from compost.

Phil Greaves brought three large black and chrome trinocular Leitz microscopes, a dissecting microscope, a micromanipulator, and a Lilliput carbon arc lamp. His Ortholux was equipped for Smith-T interference contrast, and was accompanied by two wooden boxes of accessories, including an Ultropak incident light illuminator and matching objectives

Leitz Ortholux and accessoriesLeitz Ortholux and accessories

Leitz Ortholux accessoriesLeitz Ortholux accessories

Phil’s Dialux II was fitted with a Heine phase contrast/dark-ground condenser and matching PV objectives. His Laborlux II was an unusual version where the focus knobs move the viewing head instead of the stage. It was fitted with a dark-ground condenser.

Leitz Dialux II and Laborlux II microscopesLeitz Dialux II and Laborlux II microscopes and polarization accessories

Leitz dissecting microscopeLeitz dissecting microscope

Leitz micromanipulator and Lilliput carbon arc lampLeitz micromanipulator and Lilliput carbon arc lamp

Earlier this year, the Club invested in professional restoration bookbinding and bespoke archival cases for some of its more important books, and Phil brought some of the restored books.

The Rotifera by C. T. Hudson & P. H. GosseThe Rotifera by C. T. Hudson & P. H. Gosse

Micrographia Restaurata by Robert HookeMicrographia Restaurata by Robert Hooke

Other books included The Select Works of Antony van Leeuwenoek by Samuel Hoole, and Employment for the Microscope by Henry Baker.

Michael Horwood showed lots of the slides that he makes of insect wings between two glass slides held together with copper tape. He also brought some photographs of the slides. Michael does not kill insects; he uses deteriorated specimens from collections, or dead insects that he finds.

Michael HorwoodMichael Horwood

Michael Horwood’s slidesSome of Michael Horwood’s slides

Mike Howlett of the Anglian Microscopy Group displayed several of his photomicrographs of crystals.

Mike Howlett’s exhibitMike Howlett’s exhibit

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Graham Matthews brought his trinocular Leitz Diavert inverted microscope and his trinocular Leitz Dialux compound microscope. The Dialux is equipped for DIC. He uses a dual fibre optic cable that fits the rear illumination port to provide illumination by LED and electronic flash. Graham also brought a small monocular brass Leitz with its wooden case.

Leitz Diavert and Leitz DialuxLeitz Diavert and Leitz Dialux

Graham has his own website, micromagus.net, where you can see more about his equipment and photomicrographs.

Stephen Parker brought three Leitz polarising microscopes with a variety of slides of thin sections of rocks and fossils.

Stephen Parker and Phil GreavesStephen Parker (left) and Phil Greaves

The smallest was a monocular SMLux Pol for students, with a Bertrand lens and a circular stage. The middle one was a monocular Laborlux Pol for routine work, with a Betrand lens, a circular stage, and an interchangeable nosepiece that allowed the use of incident light polarising or Ultropak dark-ground incident. The largest one was a trinocular Dialux Pol that could take even more accessories, such as an arm to link the polariser and analyser for synchronous movement with a universal stage.

Leitz polarising microscopesLeitz polarising microscopes

Stephen also brought a Leitz catalogue and three books, A Colour Atlas of Rocks and Minerals in Thin Section by W. S. MacKenzie & A. E. Adams, Atlas of rock-forming minerals in thin section by W. S. MacKenzie & C. Guilford, and Atlas of igneous rocks and their textures by W. S. MacKenzie, C. H. Donaldson & C. Guilford.

Robert Ratford’s exhibit included items from the Quekett stand at New Scientist Live. He used a trinocular stereomicroscope with a Chinese inspection camera and an Epson video projector to project an image of a peacock corona feather onto the wall. He used a Chinese inspection camera to show images of live brine shrimps (Artemia) on a monitor. He used small ELIKLIV digital microscopes with built-in screens to show specimens including a dried seahorse, mealworms (larvae of Tenebrio molitor), locusts and a circuit board from a mobile phone

Robert Ratford’s exhibitRobert Ratford’s exhibit

Bevil Templeton-Smith showed the trinocular Leitz Orthoplan that he uses to photograph his crystal slides with objectives from 1× to 10×. He uses a Sony α7R IV mirrorless camera connected via the lenses from a Vario-Orthomat. You can see several of Bevil’s crystal photomicrographs on his Facebook and Instagram pages.

Bevil Templeton-Smith and Chris KennedyBevil Templeton-Smith (left) and Chris Kennedy

At the Quekett Spring Sale, Bevil bought a Leitz Aristophot macrophotography stand. He recently found a box of lenses and accessories, including Milar and Summar macro lenses from 24 mm to 100 mm and their matching condensers

Leitz Aristophot accessoriesLeitz Aristophot accessories

Chris Thomas used his black and chrome monocular Beck Model 47 microscope fitted with a USB-500 C-mount camera sending images of his pollen slides and leaf prints to a laptop computer.

Chris Thomas’s exhibitChris Thomas’s exhibit

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Chris was also giving demonstrations of making leaf epidermis prints in Vida Loca UV Resin.

Chris Thomas’s demonstrationChris Thomas’s demonstration

Rob Kesseler and Chris ThomasRob Kesseler and Chris Thomas

Nigel Williams brought several items, including an Olympus SZ-III stereomicroscope with its trans-illumination base. Nigel showed how to produce dark-ground illumination for slides by replacing the mirror with an upside-down LED ring-light with a black disk in the middle.

Nigel Williams and Peter SunderlandNigel Williams (left) and Peter Sunderland

Nigel also brought two black and chrome monocular Leitz microscopes to show Klaus Kemp diatom arrangements of a bicycle and a microscope.

Nigel was giving away diatom strews that Klaus regarded as rejects because the ringing was not absolutely perfect.

Camera lucida and Leitz monocular microscopesCamera lucida and Leitz monocular microscopes

Nigel also showed a camera lucida by Peter Sartory, and some slides of large specimens.

Slides of large specimensSlides of large specimens


Displays

The centre of the hall was filled with photomicrographs that had been entered for a Barnard Award.

Photomicrographs entered for a Barnard AwardPhotomicrographs entered for a Barnard Award

Photomicrographs entered for a Barnard AwardPhotomicrographs entered for a Barnard Award

Graham Matthews judged the slides that were entered for an Eric Marson Award, and displayed the slides with their notes. He also arranged a PowerPoint presentation of the slides.

Slides entered for an Eric Marson AwardSlides entered for an Eric Marson Award

Slides entered for an Eric Marson AwardSlides entered for an Eric Marson Award

PowerPoint presentation of Eric Marson slidesPowerPoint presentation of Eric Marson slide entries

Photographs of the artwork entries were displayed, together with the original of Nigel Ashby’s model of the diatom Surirella.

Pieces entered for an artwork awardPieces entered for an artwork award

Videos entered for a Barnard Award, and photomicrographs by Lesley RobertsonVideos entered for a Barnard Award, and Lesley Robertson’s work and research


Lectures

Quekex also features specialised lectures. This year two lectures were presented in person and via Zoom during the Exhibition. They were recorded, and Quekett members can watch them in the password-protected Members’ area.

“Touched with Prolifick Virtue: The Art and Science of Pollen” by Professor Rob Kesseler (University of the Arts London)

Rob Kesseler lecturingRob Kesseler lecturing

You can see examples of Rob’s artwork on his website and his Instagram page.

“The Good, The Bad, and The Algae” by Professor Chris Howe (University of Cambridge)

Chris Howe lecturingChris Howe lecturing


Acknowledgements

Our thanks to everyone who:

  • brought exhibits and demonstrations
  • submitted photomicrographs, videos, slides and artworks
  • judged the photomicrographs, videos, slides and artworks
  • booked the venue
  • got out and packed away the tables and chairs
  • organised the displays of photographs
  • organised tea, coffee and biscuits
  • arranged, broadcast and recorded the lectures
  • publicised the event and the meeting report on social media

We hope to see you all again next year!

Report and most photographs by Alan Wood

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