I've enjoyed this trip down memory lane. I remember using Ouchterlony plates to detect Australia antigen (Hepatitis .  And we all had our coffee cups nearby!

My metal tube dispenser in blood bank had a permenant coffee ring on the top! 

I train high school students on ABO grouping using leftover bacti cards from kits like strep or influenza.  They are disposable and easy to come by.  Works just fine.

I have used all of these techniques. It must be time to retire!

"And do you remember Folin-Wu tubes, colloidal golds, protein-free filtrates, changing dialyzer membranes on 2 channel autoanalyzers, leukocyte reduced cells by inverted centrifugation,"

 

Fortunately I wasn't around for these.

the fall of Rome, the discovery of fire and the other items that may mark us as ancient and should be retired like that guy's cell washer in another thread?"

 

Hmmmmmmm, never took a hot oil bath in the lab, as far as I remember!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I might have had one or two in boiling oil, particularly when meeting with the boss. Which brings to mind the famous old Charles Addams cartoon (attached) Those are Christmas carolers in front of the door, by the way.

Edited July 1, 201411 yr by Dr. Pepper

I have used all of these techniques. It must be time to retire!

"And do you remember Folin-Wu tubes, colloidal golds, protein-free filtrates, changing dialyzer membranes on 2 channel autoanalyzers, leukocyte reduced cells by inverted centrifugation,"

 

 

I remember all of those things too, tricore.  (Gosh.....hadn't thought about the "buffy-coat-poor" leuko-reduced cells by inverted spin for many, many years.)

 

Donna

I'm looking to see if anybody knows any suppliers of glass tiles/ceramic tiles for blood grouping that can be washed and reused. We have some old glass tiles that the partitioning has fallen apart so that the reaction mixtures in different wells combine and therefore have to replace them. While I can find disposable plastic tiles easily enough, I'm really looking to replace with preferably glass tiles but ceramic tiles will also be good.

 

Here you go: http://www.stradis-med.de/pages_e/flowfix10.html

And what about CSF proteins in big test tubes where you compared the colour against a big colour chart on the wall.  And was it urines boiled up in Tollen's reagent in an old Marvel dried milk tin on a bunsen burner?

 

As for the cartoon, in Geneva many hundreds of years ago, the city was saved exactly like that by pouring boiling soup on the invaders from the city walls.  It's celebrated every year!! (with chocolate now)

You mean you actually pour boiling chocolate on people every year to celebrate Anna?  And I always thought that Switzerland was a neutral country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember all of those things too, tricore. (Gosh.....hadn't thought about the "buffy-coat-poor" leuko-reduced cells by inverted spin for many, many years.)

Donna

Donna, do you remember the little steel beads that you had to pop out of the tubing into the bag to get things going after you stuck the donor? (This is way pre-blood center.) We used to cut the corners of outdated units and pour them down the sink. The sink backed up one day and we called in the plumber who found the trap clogged with - a gazillion little balls.

I don't remember the balls in the donor bag but I have drawn into vacuum bottles.

I don't remember the balls in the donor bag but I have drawn into vacuum bottles.

Me too!! I did use  the balls in the donor bag and I did start out drawing donors in vacuum bottles. Do you remember how to make packed cells from a glass bottle of whole blood?

Donna, do you remember the little steel beads that you had to pop out of the tubing into the bag to get things going after you stuck the donor? (This is way pre-blood center.) We used to cut the corners of outdated units and pour them down the sink. The sink backed up one day and we called in the plumber who found the trap clogged with - a gazillion little balls.

 

Oh, my gosh.......After a moment of thought, yes, I do remember those little steel beads.  I had completely forgotten that's how we used to start the blood collection flowing.

 

We had a day back then when we thought we were going to need to call a plumber, too.  There was this awful smell coming from the cabinet under the sink.  Didn't need a plumber after all........We used to pack our donor whole blood units into Packed Cells, then throw the bag of plasma into a box under the sink (and later sell the plasma to a fractionating company.)  Turns out that one of the plasma bags (several weeks old) had a leak and we had quite a disgusting population of maggots.  (None of us felt like eating lunch that day.)

 

Donna

:trash: :trash: :trash:Thanks for sharing that Donna!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So "tiles" are slides???   LOL 

Oh, my gosh.......After a moment of thought, yes, I do remember those little steel beads. I had completely forgotten that's how we used to start the blood collection flowing.

We had a day back then when we thought we were going to need to call a plumber, too. There was this awful smell coming from the cabinet under the sink. Didn't need a plumber after all........We used to pack our donor whole blood units into Packed Cells, then throw the bag of plasma into a box under the sink (and later sell the plasma to a fractionating company.) Turns out that one of the plasma bags (several weeks old) had a leak and we had quite a disgusting population of maggots. (None of us felt like eating lunch that day.)

Donna

We put the reclaimed plasma in a box under the sink, too, but were able to keep the flies away. My worst lab fly experience (and how many of you used to snap them with tournequets?) was trialing a new c diff kit that had test devices upon which you let a stool suspension sit and incubate. I had set up a dozen and returned to find a huge fly, who thought he had died and gone to fly heaven, flitting from device to device. Half of them came out positive and I had to start over. Never got the fly though.

Yeuk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!