212 Transactions of the 



E. — Mr. Henry George* brought before the notice of this 

 Society a few years ago an inexpensive, compact form of store-box, 

 wherein considerable ingenuity was displayed. The merit of his 

 plan of store-box, or, indeed, small portable cabinet, Hes in its being 

 composed entirely of tin (japanned or otherwise), therefore of small 

 compass, hght, and not hable to warp ; in the slides lying flat ; and 

 in a simple arrangement whereby the slides are kept in place 

 without chance of overriding each other. 



Each box is made to hold three or six dozen slides, or by in- 

 crease of capacity to hold proportionally more. In that which 

 contains seventy-two the outer casing is of oblong figure, 6^ inches 

 long, 3^ wide, and about 2^ inches deep. The hd is unhinged, and 

 of ordinary form. The four sides of the box are each incised by a 

 wide, deep semilune, so that the trays can readily be extracted. 

 Each tray is a simple sheet of tin, out of which a large, long, oval 

 piece has been cut, to ensure facihty in taking up each slide. At 

 the two farther extremities the tin is turned on edge, and forms a 

 rest to the tray which hes above it. The opposite sides of the tray 

 have their edges curvilinearly bent in, so that the shdes shpping 

 beneath are held firmly in place, alongside of each other. The 

 Blides thus lie secure, transversely to the long diameter of the box 

 or tray, six in a row ; and when one or more is wanted, by a tilting 

 motion of the finger below the glass through the open space, extrac- 

 tion is easily effected. 



The defects in this otherwise capital little case apply equally to 

 those of Mr. Piper and the book-boxes, viz. if a specimen is wanted 

 from the bottom row, all above have first to be removed. Again, 

 while the labelling of each slide is readily seen on being raised, yet 

 unless the entire contents are known, every tray has to be gone 

 over before the thing wanted is to be found. 



F. — I may refer en jjcissant to Mr. Furze's zinc cases, the chief 

 recommendation to which is their being of metal. Thus there is 

 no liability to warp, as is also the case in the material used by 

 Mr. George. These certainly have advantages over wood, which, 

 unless mahogany, and that weU seasoned, is so liable to warp, and 

 render drawers stiff and troublesome to open. 



6r. — As a modification of the rack principle, Mr. Sorby (accord- 

 ing to my friend Mr. David Forbes) uses a small form of box 

 wherein the slides are ranged in rack, but instead of their lying 

 tilted, each is placed horizontally. 



A further extension of the same principle, and what are really 

 most excellent capacious store-boxes (or to those who are satisfied 

 with a moderate thing, a compact cabinet), cheap, portable, and 



* The address of this gentleman is 65, Castle Street, Oxford Street, W. His 

 invention has not found its way into the microscopic trade generally, but Mr. Beck, 

 of Cornhill, showed me one specimen among liis stock in trade. 



