[Histonet] Detached vinyl coverslips - any advice on reattachment?

[Gordon Brown]

I'm an amateur microscopist and along with a couple of fellow club members
we have acquired a fairly extensive collection of histopathology slides
(approx. 2500 slides) made in the early 2000s and used for seminar and
lecture purposes. We intend to use these to further our knowledge and
interest in histopathology and the majority of the slides are in superb
condition for this purpose and reasonably well documented. However,
approximately 300 to 400 of the slides are suffering from detachment of the
coverslip, these coverslips being made of what I assume to be vinyl, and we
are attempting to reattach them. Can anyone advise how this type of
coverslip was attached in the first instance? I'm assuming this was done
using an automatic coverslipper, but there's no easily visible trace of
mountant on either the slide or the coverslip so they may be self-adhesive
or use a heat activated adhesive. Each coverslip is 55.4mm x 24.1mm.

 

Hope someone can help, if we know how they were attached in the first
instance this may give us some ideas for a strategy for reattachment.

 

Regards

Gordon