THE PURBECK MEETING

(I am very grateful to Bryan Darnton and Derek Stevens who provided this report - I have mainly added pictures. My comments are in italics)

The combined meeting of the QMC and PMS on Saturday 18 May was again organised by Derek Stevens and Brian Darnton and held in the Village Hall.

Despite the cooler weather it was well attended by exhibitors, children from a local school and later in the day by several families from nearby towns as a result of a new (wider) initiative in local advertising.
[This is a splendid initiative well worth copying by other groups]

Derek Stevens showed us his new video camera connected to his Baker microscope. He introduced an element of competition in the recognition of species of Diatoms present in a rich strew from the Thames at Pangbourne, which had been very well prepared.

Klaus Kemp brought a variety of slides for us to examine which included his Diatoms, laid butterfly scales and a full range of his excellent products. On a lap-top computer, he also gave us the opportunity to try out his extensive Diatom Data-Base which will soon be available for sale in CD format.

Richard Speight once again delighted us with innovative ideas. This time they were various clever devices for the measurement of numerical aperture finished as usual, in neat varnished boxes.

Tony Saunders Davies demonstrated several advanced more powerful white LED's to good effect. [I showed how under low power diatoms showed Newtonian colours according to the closeness of the straiae. But the latest 5.6 candle LEDs allow DGI up to X40]

Fred Loxton. brought a number of very old microscope slides which he had collected over the years. They included a rare and classic Oamaru circle of Diatoms.

Ken and Bette Jones, set up one of their favourite video films of gyrating Rotifers and demonstrated the unrivalled splendour of the Mantis projection microscope. They also ran a useful stall of optical paraphernalia .

 

Mike and Joan Bingley demonstrated the merits of a recently acquired Cooke Troughton and Simms polarising microscope with a variety of fine objects.

William Vatcher set up a range of home made jigs for macro photography and photography under the microscope with prints to demonstrate the results.

Sidney and Kath Harvey supported Klaus in his on-going demonstrations. [And Klaus catches a very young potential diatomist!]

Graham Griffin demonstrated the complexities of an old macro camera as well as running a stall for the sale of old lenses.

Sam Christofi assembled a fine Wild microscope with a very effective camera lucida which we could try out. The results of our labours were variable!!! Kit Brownlee using a Watson binocular, amused us all with the contents of her windowsill micro-pond, full of algae and acrobatic Hydra viridis.

Brian Darnton showed the latest addition to his marine museum .The Foraminifera slides were set in the manner of Earland in the quincunx pattern.

Rosemary Stevens and Margarita Darnton provided continuous refreshment for members and for the visitors. More visitors (about 15 adults and children and a further 10 children from the local school) made for a very busy and enjoyable meeting.

Many members have expressed their appreciation of the informal 'gossip shop' nature of these meetings (hence twice per year) and the facilities provided by the large village hall (and nearby pub!). As the meetings are relatively small - some 20 members - there is ample time for each member to talk to all the others and exchange ideas and information and space for visitors. The occasional influx of visitors, all asking questions, stimulates our enthusiam for our subject and challenges our knowledge. More than once I (D.S) have had the question 'are these small plants (algae) very important?' - the answer can be as long as you want! The next meeting will be in the village hall on Saturday 16 November Brian Darnton and Derek Stevens.

[A splendid meeting! Heartiest congratulations to Brian and Derek!]