66 E. KELLY MAXWELL ON 



had grave fears as to the searching demands of a l/6th in. as re- 

 gards stand and adjustments, but in the sacred cause of science I 

 plucked up courage. The old wooden stand, good enough for a 

 very doubtful 2 in., was rather shaky with the 2/3rd in. and im- 

 possible with the 1/6 th in., and after some attempts to stiffen it- 

 I began to look about for suitable metal fittings. I spent hours 

 and hours beguiling shopkeepers, all friendly, but some very 

 inclined to be suspicious of a buyer who made excuses to get- 

 peeping into drawers and searching their stores for likely bits of 

 brass. What I wanted was something to act as a guide or slide,, 

 and at the same time offer some hope of an adjustment by screw 

 or otherwise for focusing. At last I found what I wanted. In 

 the stoves one finds all over Flanders and Northern France there 

 is very often a damper, i.e. a flat disk mounted on a spindle 

 passing through the stovepipe, and moved to increase or shut ofi 

 the draught by turning a key handle on the end of the spindle. 

 The spindle I found was square with screw thread cuts on the 

 edges to take the nuts which kept it in position. The square 

 fitted in the damper and turned it. I got a blind-cord strainer 

 of the kind in which a vertical bar carrying a pulley slides 

 in holes in two projections from a base plate. I opened out 

 these holes until they fitted as closely as possible, but easily, on 

 the damper spindle. Using the spindle as a tap, I forced a thread 

 in the vertical part of a furniture castor, after removing the pin, 

 and a keyhole plate clamped between this and one of the nuts 

 on the spindle formed the stage. The base plate of the cord 

 strainer sliding on the damper spindle against a spiral spring 

 placed round it, and pushed down adjustably against it by the 

 remaining nut, formed a sliding carriage to which was attached 

 by carpet tacks a wooden block carved out to take the sleeve in 

 which the body tube of the microscope fitted. The jaws of 

 the castor jammed on a wooden upright completed the model 

 No. 2. A shaving glass propped up below served for mirror. 

 With the 2/3rd in. we were able to see clearly ciliary movement and 

 mastaxes now. With the l/6th in. our first object was a desmid,. 

 Closterium Lunula, focused only with considerable care. 

 But the l/6th in. was not a success with this. The carriage, as 

 it jumped briskly from point to point of the serrated edges of 

 the guiding limb, did not recommend itself to the scientist at the 

 eyepiece, chasing the elusive object at every jolt. At this time. 



