[Histonet] Re: Could you please recommend? Cryostats

[Robert Richmond]

Amos Brooks observes:
>>I have used cryostats clinically as well as in research, and one thing I noticed absent from most cryostats is the ability to adjust your block. For the life of me I cannot conceive of a reason why a company would have the audacity to sell a cryostat that does not allow the block to tilt. If I was in the market for a cryostat, I would not even consider one without this feature.<<

The cryostat (microtome in a freezer) was introduced into surgical
pathology around 1960, when it fairly rapidly replaced the old
wet-knife (e.g. Sartorius) microtome. By 1964, when I was a pathology
intern, they had come into fairly widespread use, and were in almost
universal use before 1980.

The early International (Damon/IEC) cryostats indeed had a very large
black knob that enabled you to tilt the block. The beginner invariably
grabbed that knob and twisted it, putting the block at a weird tilt.
Usually before you knew it you were cutting metal, a serious problem
back in the days of sharpening microtome blades. When you're doing a
surgical frozen section, you have no time for such gyrations. That's
probably why this bug/undocumented feature was eliminated.

But man, those early Internationals were versatile - the things you
could do with them in a research lab were limited only by your
imagination and technical expertise. I think with six months lead time
you could have one of those things running underwater.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN