THE AUTUMN MEETING OF THE PMS and QMC AT LANGTON MATRAVERS DORSET.

[Ed: I am very grateful to Brian Darnton for this very full report and pictures]

The autumn meeting was held at the village hall of Langton Matravers Near Swanage, on the 16th of November.

Once again we were greeted with traditional Dorset weather. This included torrential rain and concluded with a spectacular electrical storm above the Purbeck Hills.

Derek Stevens who organised the meeting this year, brought the latest illumination system for his video displays of the micro-life of the fresh water Little Sea , Studland, of which he has completed a comprehensive survey in recent years.

Alan Hepworth brought some colourful lichens and mosses for viewing, and an impressive dossier of photographs of fungi.

Klause Kemp brought some of the finer examples of his own creations, as well as his latest product of a massive illustrated data base of the diatoms on CD.

Richard Speight equipped with a CTS polarising microscope introduced us to the identification of asbestos in a polarised field as well as giving us some insight into the literature of a subject to which he has made significant contributions. Shown here with Michael Bingley

Fred Loxton showed a range of rare Flatters and Garnet geological slides of Paleo-Botany which consisted of thin sections from coal balls.

Ken Jones brought fine examples of a fresh water sponge,and the colonial rotifer, Sinantherina socialis, from the Basingstoke Canal. They were seen under a Stereo microscope as well as on a video which had been created in his studio..

Mike and Joan Bingley allowed us to view part of their splendid collection of microscopic photographs by DiDonato, Dancer et al. which included a small number of delightfully illuminated texts and a complete version of the smallest Bible in the World.

William Vatcher demonstrated the macro-potential of his Samsung Hi-8 movie camera which seemed to operate perfectly well without a microscope!

Kit Brownlee ran a demonstration of the sheer beauty of dry Sea Mats from the South Coast. These included Flustra, Membranipora , and Mytilus. She is seen here discussing her exhibit with a Swedish visitor, Per Borjesson.

G.D.Griffin Had a large cut away demonstration microscope to explain to visitors how things worked as well as a labelled display of microscope parts on a panel.

Sam Christofi brought the Zeiss universal and a collection of meteorites and prepared slides from many of the well documented sources.

Mike Woof set up a large carousel device incorporated into a microscope system so that dry mounted material viewed under low magnification could be rotated and comparisons made.

Brian Darnton, departed from his more familiar marine theme and showed us a collection of fern scales under a polarising microscope.

We had a number of visitors from near and far. During the our most busy period in the late morning one lady, having seen a trail of people entering the hall, anticipated that the Christmas bazaar was in full swing. Clutching her purse she entered the fray to emerge an hour later enchanted by the experience and singing the praises of Ken Jones` delightful animalcules from the murky depths of the Basingstoke canal.!

Rosemary Stevens and Margriet Darnton organised much needed refreshments during the course of the day. The meetings continue to be well attended , relaxed and informal; gaining much from their rustic Dorset setting.

Brian Darnton. Swanage.