On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, TODD LUA wrote:

> Is there a company out there that does preventative maintenance on microtomes?  
> Thanks

  Your title line was an eye-catcher because PM means post mortem
  (or necropsy) to many of us. I've seen 3 dead microtomes. One
  was neglected for 20 years, with every moving part locked solid,
  and no money for professional help. The 2nd was thrown out to
  free up a square foot of bench space (fortunately it was just a
  1950s AO/Spencer, of little more value than the mol biol type
  who needed somewhere to rest an elbow). The 3rd was a namelesss
  stainless steel machine mounted at 45deg in a cryostat cabinet
  that looked like the ice-cream fridge in a little shop that
  I can remember from the 1940s. This cryotome did sterling service
  from the late 1970s (when I rescued it from the junk yard) until
  about 1993 when something went horribly wrong with the threading
  on the stout rod that advanced the chuck. Again, neither money
  nor expertise was available, so it was scrapped. 

  Can anyone identify this anonymous cryostat from my description?   
  If you can, and you have one, it might be worth keeping it for
  the Antiques Road Show, 1?   5? or even 10? years in the future.

>