Abstract: A sampling dish, comprising a body defining a cavity and comprising a bottom wall, an open top end and side walls extending from the bottom wall to the open top end; and a removable closure element comprising a ring and a plate, the ring being movable into a mating position with edges of the side walls of the body to secure securing said plate in place over the open top of the body, thereby ensuring hermeticity of the dish in a closed position, and the ring being removable from the mating position to allow removal of the plate from the open top of the body for access to the cavity of the dish in an open position.

Abstract: A modular test tube rack for assembly with similarly constructed racks comprise a flat rectangular body displaying, in a first position, a series of wells extending from its top wall to its bottom wall and adapt to receive tubes therein. A pair of handles vertically extend at opposite end walls of the body, each handle having a lower portion adapted to tightly engage an extension on each end wall and a hand gripping upper portion. The lower portion has a bottom edge configured to anchor with the top edge of the handle of an underposed similarly constructed rack to thereby enable a stacking of two more of these racks. In one embodiment, the body displays a second series of wells extending from the bottom wall to the top wall whereby the body, when in a second position reversed relative to the first position, may also receive test tubes, the handles being reversably mountable to the end wall extension to still enable a stacking of racks in the second position.

Abstract: An integral assembly of a multiplicity of spaced reagent tubes arranged in an aligned series wherein the tubes are integrally linked to one another by connecting portions and to a corresponding multiplicity of independently spaced seal caps by a multiplicity of bands, each band having one end integral with a seal cap and an opposite end integrally connected to two adjacent tubes. The bands extend perpendicularly to the series of aligned tubes and include an oblique hinge portion which is deformable so as to allow the cap to be independently manipulatable to pivot angularly and to superimpose the open end of a tube for sealing.

Abstract: A support assembly for receiving and holding a series of test tubes is formed of a base plate receiving the bottom ends of the tubes, an intermediate frame displaying an array of openings to receive the tubes and a top frame also displaying an array of tube receiving openings in vertical registry with the array of openings of the intermediate frame. The base plate and the top frame have outwardly extending opposite ends that are adapted to snappingly engage one another together with the opposite ends of the intermediate frame. The intermediate frame and the top frame include one or more removable frame sections each having openings of a given configuration to correspond to the configuration of tubes so that the support is adaptable to receive tubes of varying configuration. Similarly, the base plate has one or more removable sections to correspond to the configuration of the bottom ends of the tubes.

Abstract: The thrust device comprises a valve body (20) having a chamber (24) surrounding part of the needle, at least one gas admission opening (27) opening out into the chamber, and a gas outlet opening (25) opening out into the chamber and defined by a wall portion which co-operates with a nose portion (14) of a moving needle (10) to define an outlet section for gas leaving the chamber. Actuator means (40, 41, 43) control the position of the needle in the valve body by acting on a rear end portion of the needle. The nose (14) of the moving needle (10) has an aerodynamic concave profile (15) and the wall portion (29) which defines the outlet (25) from the chamber is shaped in such a manner as to be capable of directing the exiting gases essentially against the concave side of the nose of the needle, which needle acts as the main member for taking up thrust.

Abstract: An assembly of stacked modular containers for handling, transporting and storing microscope specimen slides is described. The side walls of the rectangular-shaped containers have slide interconnections so that the containers may be longitudinally slid relative to one another. A releasable locking arrangement is provided on the extension of one of the other container walls to prevent unwarranted longitudinal sliding movement of the containers and to retain them in a secured stack formation. The extension of the container wall is made flexible to enable manual disengagement of locking members on the extension to thereby allow the sliding of containers for insertion or removal of slides into and from the containers.

Abstract: The invention describes a container for retaining a plurality of microscope slides and comprises a base and a tray removably received on the bottom wall of the base; the tray displays a pair of laterally spaced longitudinally extending slide retaining compartments wherein each compartment includes a series of longitudinally spaced partitions, the spaces between the partitions and the distance between the opposite walls of the compartments are such as to receive the short sides of the rectangular shaped microscope slides; the spaces also enable the slides to be manually moved reciprocally between a frontwardly inclined position and a rearwardly inclined position. The width of the base is slightly greater than the width of three laterally vertically standing slides so that the slides may be stored in three lateral rows in the base when the tray is removed therefrom.