The simple, everyday objects found in most households are changed into totally new and enthralling visual experiences when studied underneath the microscope.
Fibers, Hairs, and Fabrics
An effective detective uses a microscope to recognize fibers found at the crime scene. A microscopist too can distinguish different kinds of fibers that make up the fabrics when placed over the microscope glass slide, and examined underneath a microscope. Human and animal hairs, cotton, wool, or nylon stockings will give more than enough sources for correct investigations. The most excellent results are obtained by teasing out at the edge of a scrap of fabric using dissecting needles. The fibers will then be placed on a microscope glass slide and a cover glass. It may be worthwhile to prepare series of permanent microscope glass slide, which can be filed and used as standards of comparison when examining unidentified specimen fibers.
Preparing a permanent mount of fibers is very simple. Whether the specimen consists of teased out fibers or a minute piece of the cloth itself, the mounting technique is still the same. Simply place the shred of cloth or the tuft of fibers in the center of a clean microscope glass slide. Add a drop of xylol and avoid touching it for two to three minutes. Add another drop or two when the specimen dries up. Drop a balsam solution over the specimen and carefully lower the cover slip into place. Study the specimen underneath the microscope using both a transmitted and reflected light illumination.
Wool is an animal hair that appears as fiber covered with overlapping scales arranged like shingles on the roof when viewed under a microscope. In order to see the scales, it is best recommended to view the wool threads under a high-powered microscope. Reflected illumination can offer best results rather than working with a transmitted light. Wool has the attribute that is common to all animal hairs. It is the possession of external scales on the hair shaft. Preparing a series of mounts of animal hairs makes an appealing and valuable project.
Hair specimens must be cleaned before they are mounted because they have a tendency to be oily and filthy most of the time. To do this, set up a 95% alcohol to be filled up into a small vial or a bottle. Then gripping a tiny clump with a pair of forceps, soak the specimen in the bottle of alcohol, whirling it inside in a minute or two. Place the hairs on a microscope glass slide and split the individual strands with a fine needle. Mount the specimen as indicated for other fibers. Other natural fibers consist of linen, silk, and cotton. Others such as jute, hemp, and ramie also exist but they are little used in the manufacture of fabrics.
Linen is taken from a stem of the flax plant. It is made of hollow fibers usually seen bound together in bundles; they present a segmented look underneath the microscope. Cross markings or striations, which can be seen, spaced at intervals along the fiber bundles, cause this outcome. Silk has the spinning organs of the silk worm. The larva of the silkworm moth as a covering for its cocoon produces this fabric. Silk is made of fabrics that are smoother than the wool or linen. Under a microscope, its fibers appear smooth, slender, and glossy even with the effects of magnification. Silk fibers are quite fine yet strong.
Cotton fibers are seed hairs of the growing plant exist in form of hollow, tubular strands. The tubes are collapsed and flattened after being woven into fabric. Place this flat, ribbon like appearance by placing a cotton fiber on a microscope glass slide and examine it under a microscope. It will then appear coiled, twisted, or spiraled along their length. Cotton fibers are not simply mistaken for anything else under magnification. Synthetic fibers such as nylon, dacron, orlon, rayon, acrilan, and acetate fibers, are even and uniform in appearance when viewed under the microscope. It is not easy to tell one from the other when they are on the microscope glass slide. Classification usually involves chemical rather than visual analysis.
