Facilities & Equipment
The Wiener Laboratory consists of a main room with tables for strewing materials, while smaller laboratories include a wet lab with chemical storage, a fume hood, muffle furnace and oven; an X-ray lab with a shielded X-ray unit and an automatic processor for developing radiographic films; a microscope lab with a variety of microscopes including a metallographic micro scope, a stereomicroscope and a polarizing light microscope, along with digital and film cameras for preparing photomicrographs. There is also a wide range of basic equipment supporting the research interests of scholars in the Wiener Laboratory. Balances, calipers, rock saws, sieves, scanners, and grinders and polishers for thin section preparation are available.
Detailed Equipment Inventory
- Microscopes: The Laboratory has three Leica research grade microscopes; a DMILM Inverted Microscope for material control with two lamp housings for brightfield and fluorescence work; an M10 Sterozoom microscope with optional transmitted light base and long swinging arm for large objects, and a Laborlux 12PolS polarizing light microscope for analysis of samples in thin section, with reflected light capability for opaque materials and ores. Both these instruments include drawing and photographic capabilities. In addition there are other intermediate-level stereozoom and polarizing light microscopes.
- A Unitron Metallograph (ME-2029) microscope, equipped for use with Polaroid film, with graduated stage and sample centering press.
- Accutom-2 Struers Saw: this versatile precision instrument is used for the preparation of sample thin sections of materials ranging from fish otoliths to teeth and bone, minerals, stone and ceramic.
- Agfa Automatic X-ray Film Processor.
- Buehler Isomet Low-speed Saw: particularly useful for low-speed (300rpm’s max.) cutting of teeth and bone specimens with minimal surface distortion.
- Buehler Strip Grinder, Minimet Polisher and Minimet Alignment Kit and Fixture.
- Logitech Epovac vacuum impregnation unit for preparation of porous or friable samples.
- Logitech RLP4 lapping and polishing petrographic sample preparation system.
- Hermle ZX320 Centrifuge: adaptors for 15, 50 and 100ml test tubes, 8500rpm.
- Mettler Analytical AE240 Balance: dual range 40/205g, reproducibility 0.1/0.01g.
- Mettler Toledo Balance: 6000g capacity, 0.1g readability, adaptable for direct data entry with computer interface.
- MinXray 750 X-ray unit with shielding.
- Nikon Cooplix 990 digital camera with adapter fittings for the Leica microscopes.
- Nikon Cool Scan (slide scanner).
- Epson A3 scanner.
The Laboratory has a wide range of basic equipment, including varieties of calipers, an anthropometer, a mandibulometer, ovens, a carbolite kiln, overhead projector, timers, cameras and lenses, desk and laptop computers and printers (laser and color), e-mail and internet facilities, ultrasonic cleaner, hot plates, slide warmer, chemical storage units, specimen grinders and polishers, sample splitter, trim saw, dial-o-gram scale, fiber optic illuminator, osteometric boards, physical anthropological casts, hand lenses, glassware and consumables.