Abstract: A magnetic recording member with a thin metallic antifriction protection overcoat formed over a magnetic layer. The overcoat is soft ductile and low stress and includes a metal selected from the group consisting of palladium, platinum, silver, gold, cadmium, indium, tin and lead or an alloy of one or more of these metals, and may include less than 20 percent by weight of antimony, bismuth, thallium or copper to improve wear resistance or impede corrosion. In one preferred embodiment the antifriction overcoat is an alloy of silver, lead and antimony formed with N layers where 10.ltoreq.N.ltoreq.40. The even layers are richer in a selected metal of the alloy than the odd layers in order to produce adjacent layers with different lattice or microstructural and associated mechanical properties so that there tends to be parallel shear between adjacent layers under sharing stress of head impact or friction.

Abstract: A pulsed-field gradient gel electrophoretic apparatus is described wherein a free standing gel is employed. Electrode arrays are oriented to provide three dimensional fields across the face of the gel rather than in the plane of the gel. The electrodes produce three dimensional fields which are orthogonally oriented with respect to each other and cause the molecules to proceed down the lanes in the gel in a generally saw-tooth manner oscillating between the surfaces thereof. Alternately, three dimensional, electric fields are arranged at angles greater than 90.degree. to one another across the face of the gel in separating the molecules, following which transfer electrodes are substituted for the separation electrodes in order to transfer the molecules from their separation lanes onto a separate substrate.