No mistake, no wrong name. 

Vibratome(tm) is a registered trademark of the Vibratome(tm) Co.,
formerly known as TPI (Technical Products International).  Other
companies manufacture vibrating blade microtomes, sometimes incorrectly
referred to as Vibratomes, since the Vibratome(tm) line was first and
founded the field, and dominates the market for vibrating microtomes.

The Vibratome(tm) Company has recently introduced a complete line of
cryostats, sliding microtomes, rotary microtomes, tissue choppers, and
brain matrices.  If you want to section tissue for microscopy, what you
need is available from the Vibratome(tm) company.  Vibratome(tm) company
and myNeuroLab.com are both owned in part by Coretech Holdings.


Cordially,

Charles W.  Scouten, Ph.D.
myNeuroLab.com
5918 Evergreen Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63134
Ph: 314 522 0300  
FAX  314 522 0277
cwscouten@myneurolab.com
www.myneurolab.com


-----Original Message-----
From: J. A. Kiernan [mailto:jkiernan@uwo.ca] 
Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 12:33 AM
To: Charles W. Scouten, Ph.D.
Cc: HistoNet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: ? misnomer (was Re: Questions)

Surely there's a wrong name here!

"Charles W. Scouten, Ph.D. (by way of Histonet)" wrote:
> 
> Depends on the sliding microtome.  The Vibratome(tm) 8000 Sliding
> Microtome can cut sections 250mm x 170 mm if configured for maximum
> width.

The Vibratome (tm) in my lab is a vibrating microtome, used for
cutting slices of immersed soft objects - stuck to the chuck with
cyanoacrylate (crazy glue). It bears no resemblance to either of 
the two types of sliding microtome, and could not cut a section
of an object much more than about 1 cm square.

Sliding microtomes are massive pieces of ironmongery for
cutting specimens of any size, but not in the underwater manner
of a vibrating microtome. A sliding microtome has either a
moving block or a moving knife, and with either type the knife
can be 30 cm long. The specimen is traditionally a celloidin-
(nitrocellulose-) embedded or a frozen object, but paraffin and 
resin-embedded specimens can also be cut. At the University of
Cambridge in the 1960s a trainee assistant (technician) was
not allowed to use a rotary microtome until he/she had become
competent with a sliding block (base sledge) instrument.

-------------------------
John A. Kiernan
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
The University of Western Ontario
London,   Canada   N6A 5C1
   kiernan@uwo.ca
   http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan/