Hi Michael, If you go to http://www.elcomatic.co.uk They should be able to help you out as they have something to do with Gillett & Sibert

Cheers.

Why not ask them? It's still an active company according to Companies House:

**LINK**

"Nature of business (SIC)

• 28990 – Manufacture of other special-purpose machinery not elsewhere classified "

Neil

This is clearly an old thread but I do feel moved to write something about these microscopes.

Back in 1973 or thereabouts, I was a young RAMC medical assistant stationed at Tidworth Military Hospital. Although my post was the Reception / Casualty department, my fascination with microscopes and precision lab equipment often drew me toward the pathology lab during quiet periods. The pathologist was a keen microscopist and the G & S 'Conferance' was pretty much the lab workhorse. At that time, Vickers was the standard mid range model in most labs with Zeiss at the top of the range for more specialised work. Many different microscopes were needed for many different applications and each was dedicated to a specific application. The 'Conferance' was developed as a basic modular microscope to address this issue. With interchangeable heads, objective turrets, stages, condensers and so on, it could be quickly adapted to meet any specific application. It also had a large viewing screen to replace the ocular head for use as a teaching microscope and this is probably what gave it the 'Conferance' name. It also featured a unique focussing mechanism that was operated with a single knurled wheel rather than separate coarse and fine focus wheels. Initial turn of the wheel activated the coarse focus until the user turns it just past the required point of focus. The same wheel is then turned in the opposite direction and this automatically activates the geering into fine focus. It is an extremely intuitive focussing system.

The 'Conferance' was an extremely popular lab scope and this model still frequently crops up on Ebay. I have a G & S and I also have a Karl Zeiss 'Jena'. The G & S is my 'go-to' scope of preferance.

Funnily enough I am sitting next to the man who owned Gillet and Sibert. John Jardine is my father in law. We were just googling his name and company to see if he was anywhere on the internet. The company used to manufacture microscopes. It was acquired by Elcomatic. Elcomatic was formed by John and was more geared to electronics and made foetal heart monitors. When there was more of a call for electronic microscopes G&S closed but Elcomatic still made the odd microscope or 2 I believe. John was in his eighties when he decided to retire and hang up his hat. I don't know, but there is a possibility, that there is a microscope or 2 knocking around but I am aware that Elcomatic has changed premises quite a few times in recent years so things may have been thrown out.

If you have any specific questions let me know and I'll see if I can get an answer.

Best emailing as well….

These microscopes were popular in the past with some Cytology Laboratories, screening cervical smears for cancer. They were equipped with a compact quartz iodine (QI) lamp; useful for the technique of blue light fluorescence. In this technique FITC (fluorescence isothiocyanate) used as the fluorescent stain, fluoresced with the wavelengths generated by the QI lamps. It was claimed that Blue light fluorescence gave higher detection rates of malignancy than the traditional Papanicolaou (PAP) stain. It was an elegant idea that did not become established.

Expensive and potentially explosive mercury vapour lamps and strong filters normally required for Ultra Violet light fluorescence were not needed.

I retain a G&S for use, though have replaced the objectives with Leitz products; to my mind superior.

Happy microscopy.

Ray G