Abstract: An apparatus including a drawing element, a plurality of test tubes with airtight pierceable caps and a sucking system, suitably connected through ducts which are at least partially embodied in a disposable linking element, so that while preprogrammed volumes of air are orderly sucked out of said test tubes, programmed quantities of sample are collected into each of them. Some different construction patterns at different technological levels and an embodiment of said apparatus are outlined. A method for using it is described.

Abstract: A freight wagon is assembled from a set of building blocks together forming a superstructure mounted on a skeletal underframe having at least one axial beam and an upper surface with a modular bearing pattern. The building blocks are selected from a set of building blocks of corresponding modular dimensions, there being a plurality of species of building blocks and sets of congruent building blocks of each species whereby the underframe is usable with alternative superstructures for carrying alternative types of goods and which alternative superstructures are assemblable from alternative selections and combinations of building blocks. The wagon is particularly useful as a railway wagon in a system of wagons having bearing patterns which are unified in the sense that the modular dimensions are the same although not necessarily having the same number of modules. The wagon is assembled using simple slotted joints for automated assembly.