Microcinematography of the Agglutination of Typhoid Bacilli

Abstract

This paper describes how microcinematographic pictures were made of the agglutination process of typhoid bacilli (both H and 0), and what the resulting 16 mm. films showed. TECHNIQUEThe technique used was described in detail in a previous paper on the microcinematography. of the motile organs of typhoid bacilli (1940). Here the following chief points may suffice.Sunlight was taken as the source of light. It was brought direct from a heliostat mirror through a 2-meter focus collector lens to the dark ground condenser of the microscope. No further mirrors, nor coolers, nor light filters were employed. This had been proved to be the only way to get sufficient light onto the photographic film.The darkground condenser was the Siedentopf cardioid. Of great help were the combined glass-mica microscope slides, invented by Zeiss, which provide a perfectly clean surface by splitting off a layer of mica. With glass slides it is very difficult to get a perfectly dark background.'The objective used was the Zeiss oil-immersion apochromat, 35 X, N. A. 0.85. In combination with the Zeiss photographic eye-piece 4 X, and a distance of 15 cm. between microscope and cinema film, a magnification of a little over 50 was reached. This proved ample for all details, and low enough to send sufficient light to the photographic film.

Motility in Procaryotic Organisms: Problems, Points of View, and Perspectives

“…Consequently, both phase-contrast illumination, with its disadvantage of producing an optical artifact (a halo of reverse contrast), and darkground illumination have been employed to study the flagellar activity of such organisms as Sphaerotilus natans (Stokes, 1954; Doetsch, 1966 b), Chromatiurn okenii (Metzner, 1920)~ Spirillum undula (Metzner, 1920; Pijper, 1 9 4 9~) and Spirillum volutans (Metzner, 1920; Pijper, 1949b; . By directing sunlight from a simple heliostat to a cardioid darkground condenser, Pijper (1941) was able to concentrate the amount of light illuminating microscopic objects to the extent that the movements of peritrichously flagellated bacteria and their external organelles could be observed and recorded (Pijper, 1946; 1 9 4 9~; 1957). A brighter, steadier beam of sunlight was later obtained by use of a larger, more elaborate heliostat consisting of two aluminiumcoated mirrors, one of which was motorized and timed to follow the orbit of the sun (Pijper, 1962).…”

Methylcellulose and Bacterial Motility

“…Methocel solutions differ in their effect from the colloid solutions previously used by other authors for the purpose of slowing down motility through increasing viscosity (Neumann, 1925(Neumann, , 1928Neumiiller, 1927;Loveland, 1933; Wei, 1936). These authors used gelatin or gum, and the result was such a voluminous precipitate of these substances on the supposed "flagella" that they appeared as heavy corkscrews, the same as if they had been treated with an H-agglutinating serum, with similar end results (Pijper, 1930(Pijper, , 1931(Pijper, -32, 1938(Pijper, , 1941a). This precipitate was not noticed as such by the authors, and they regarded the thick wavy threads they saw attached to the bacterial bodies as plaits of otherwise normal "flagella."…”

Flagellum and Motility of Spirillum Serpens

“…Our chief microscopic method was sunlight dark ground as described previously (Pijper, 1938(Pijper, , 1940. The sun's brilliancy made flagella easily visible in their natural state and allowed the making of a 16 mm film of motile phenomena.…”