A Shelf-Type Gradient Incubator

Abstract

An inexpensive shelf incubator has been designed to hold a number of petri dishes, each at a different temperature. The design diminishes a gradient across the dish, avoiding undesirable circulation of liquid media. The heat gradient between shelves is nearly linear except at the extreme "hot" end. Long-term experiments show very little fluctuation at each measured position.

Temperature-gradient incubator for the growth of Clostridia

“…This equipment enables an organism to be grown over a wide temperature range at one time. This gradient is continuous if a continuous layer of agar is used, as was described by Elliott (3) and Nakae (9, and discontinuous if the organisms are grown in culture tubes or on petri plates incubated at different temperatures, as was described by Oppenheimer and Drost-Hansen (7), Okami and Sasaki (6), Battley (I), and Fluegel (4).…”

Thermoelectrically Cooled Temperature-Gradient Apparatus for Comparative Cell and Virus Temperature Studies

“…These data can be most desirably determined when all measurements are internal to a single experiment performed along a continuous temperature gradient. Several types of gradient incubators have been previously described, all based on an aluminum or stainless-steel block heated at one extremity (1,2,4,(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). Nearlinear gradients were obtained only when the opposite extremity of the gradient was cooled by refrigerant pumped through the apparatus or by immersion in a cold water bath (1,4,(10)(11)(12)(13).…”