[Histonet] bubbles in cover slipping

[George Cole]

Folks
ABOUT COVER GLASS AND BUBBLES---
Lee Luna---some of you may not have known Lee---he was editor of the
government histological manual---he came to visit us several times at
Good Samaritan Hospital.  He loved an ice cream bar we could get around
here---called THAT'S IT, or something like that. He and I got off our
diets a couple a time per visit with that.   
One visit, he showed us a way to cover slip slides that was easier,
faster and practically bubble proof.
FIRST OF ALL--- WIPING THE SLIDES WITH A TOWEL IS A  SILLY TIC.   THERE
IS MORE LINT AND STUFF PUT ONTO THE SLIDES FROM A TOWEL THAN WOULD BE
THERE FROM THE FINAL CLEARING AGENT. 
You take two or three slides out of the clearing agent--- it was xylene
with us---one at a time-----
You lay them on two or three clean paper towels----you can replace the
paper towels any time they get too wet with xylene, but you can do a lot
of slides without doing so.
This was done under the hood of course.
You simply lay the slides out on the paper towels.   AH AH AH---PUT THAT
HAND TOWEL AWAY!!!---
You put a streak of the cover glass mounting medium you use on the upper
or lower edge of the slides----which ever is more comfortable to you.
You will learn quickly how much mounting medium to put on the slides.
You then lay the cover glass one by one on the slides---if you put the
mounting medium on the upper edge of one slide---you lay the upper edge
of the cover glass in the mounting medium on the upper edge of that
slide and lower it, leading the mounting medium downward before it with
no bubbles. If you do make bubbles, you can draw them down and off the
lower edge of the slide. You then do the same for slides two and three.
The ventilation in our lab was strong---I could never do more than three
slides at a time this way----the mounting medium would be evaporating.
This was quick and neat---and you could easily control bubbles. 
There are those who will insist on continuing to hold the slides up in
the air in front of their faces to cover them----folks, if you do---you
might as well cover slip while standing on your heads.  Just breathe
slowly, smile, and try the above.  It's hygienic and low cal.         
If you put the mounting medium on the lower edge of the slide, you
simply appliy the cover glass to the lower edge and lower it up to the
top of the slide leading any bubbles off the edge of the slide. And,
with either upper or lower edge application, it was easy to learn how to
put the cover slip on without making bubbles. But if you did, you could
scoot the bubbles off with ease when lowering the cover glass.
There was a variation on this that some techs liked----you lay the COVER
GLASSES out on the paper towels, one two or three----put the mounting
medium on the upper or lower edges of each cover glass---than touch the
lower edge of the slide itself over the cover glass in the mounting
medium---the mounting medium will fill up the space naturally between
the cover and the slide with few bubbles resulting----if you do make
bubbles, you simply lead them off when you finish lowering the slide
onto the cover glass---either from the bottom up or from the top down.
With all of the above, you finish with touching the bottom of the slides
to the paper towels to drain any excess mounting medium off the slides.
NO CLOTH TOWELS HERE. There are those who will prefer to touch both top
and bottom of the slides to the paper towels.  This is ok, but may not
be necessary.    
You can do your covering quickly---neat, clean and bubble-free.  I know
from the histonet, many of you have auto stainers, and some of you have
auto cover glassing equipment.  I never did.  The equipment was ME. If
you can get bubble free cover slipping from those mechanical slaves,
good. But I can say that bubbles were not unusual with slides covered by
motorized cover slipping.
Like John Henry, I was ready to beat the machine with quantity and
quality but we never got one.  Shucks! There might have been a song
written about it----       
Georgecole <@t> ev1.net    
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