Special glassware and some other apparatus need careful handling in labs. This article deals with some basic types of apparatus which are more advanced and how to handle them.
Dehydrating or Staining Jars: If you are staining smears, protozoan or algal preparations, or sections of botanical or animal tissues, then you will very likely want some Coplin staining jars. These have slots on two sides to keep the slide surfaces separate and you can place six slides in at 1 per slot or you can double that by placing two slides back to back in each slot. You fill the jar with the stain or reagent and place your slides in the slots which allows you an opportunity to carry out timed studies to find the optimal duration for a particular stain or reagent on a particular type of specimen.
A drawback: While with most stains, one can re-use them and process a large number of slides over a considerable period of time before having to replace the staining solution, nonetheless, the jars do require considerable quantities of fluid. Ideally, one would have a separate jar for each stain and reagent. In practice that's not feasible unless you have a large research grant.
Funnels: You can get various plastic laboratory funnels from a supply house, but it's generally cheaper to go to your local discount store and buy several sizes. There are many kinds of specialized funnels and two are worth considering here. There are high speed filter funnels which have spiral grooves in the inside thus significantly speeding up the filtering process. Why is this important? Consider two examples: 1) if you are filtering a solution in a volatile solvent, such as a stain in alcohol, then you want to minimize the filtration time to avoid evaporation of the solvent which would effect the concentration of the solution or 2) if you are filtering to concentrate organisms for examination, you will again want to minimize filtration time to avoid the possibility of losing some of the organisms on the upper parts of the filter paper as a consequence of partial drying. This type of funnel is available from $1.90 to $9.70 depending upon size.
The other type to consider is also a filter funnel, the Buchner funnel. This has the advantage of allowing you to place a piece of filter paper flat at the bottom of the funnel, thus avoiding the three layers of paper on one side and one on the other when the paper is folded to fit the traditional funnel. Plastic Buchner funnels can be obtained from $3.45 to $14.00 depending on the filter paper size which ranges from 4.25 cm. To 11.0 cm.
Wash bottles: These are very convenient for directing a stream of fluid into a tube or dish. They come in a variety of sizes ranging from 12.5 ml. To 1000 ml. I find the 250 ml. to be the most useful size for my purposes. There are specially labeled wash bottles that manufacturers claim are leak proof and can be used for solvents, such as, acetone, methanol, and toluene. Personally, I remain skeptical. This seems to be a way to waste a fair amount of expensive solvents and inhale some nasty fumes in the process, so, I use mine only for distilled water, artesian water, pondwater, different kinds of culture media salt solutions, and the weaker alcohols where evaporation is not so crucial.
Mortars and Pestles-These are used for reducing materials to a powder. I prefer glass ones over the porcelain as the latter are not always evenly glazed or over time will develop small chips in the surface. Chemicals can lodge in these areas and contaminate other preparations. Furthermore, the glass ones are easier to clean.
Thermometers: To paraphrase Gertrude Stein: "A thermometer is a thermometer is a thermometer." Well, yes and no. There are partial immersion and total immersion thermometers, red alcohol-filled thermometers, mercury thermometers, digital thermometers and electronic digital thermometers with a timer and alarm and a switch to allow you to measure the ambient air temperature or the temperature of a solution by switching over to an attached probe. A good partial immersion alcohol thermometer is quite suitable for most purposes (mercury spills are messy to deal with and potentially dangerous). In dealing with microorganisms, it is often important to keep a record of temperature to get an indication of the ranges at which some species thrive and others languish.
pH Meters and Papers: Monitoring the pH (hydrogen ion concentration) will help you in maintaining sensitive micro-organisms in culture. Many organisms have fairly stringent pH requirements. A sample taken from a cold lake and then brought into the lab will warm significantly and this can alter the pH. As the culture develops over the hours and days, oxygen will be consumed and there will be an accumulation of waste by-products. Both of these factors will gradually alter the pH, so you may wish to measure the pH and then adjust it to an optimal state by the use of buffers.
Papers for measuring pH come in several types; wide range types can measure from 1-12 or even 0-14, whereas short range papers can be selected for a particular range which is relatively narrow. For example, you can select a paper that will measure from 6.0 to 8.0 in 0.5 increments. The strips or rolls of the paper come with a color chart and after you thoroughly wet a portion of the paper with the solution you are testing, you can match its color with the chart to determine the pH. For many general applications, these papers are perfectly suitable.
Hotplates and Stirrers: If you are going to buy a laboratory hotplate, be sure to get one with a variable temperature control. A popular "student" model has a thermostat preset for 399 degrees Centigrade for $95.00!