The old machine that could
On a bench in the Arnold Arboretum’s new lab building, not far from the $90,000 standard microscopes and the even pricier confocal microscope whose lasers can build 3-D computer images of tiny plant parts, sits a humble microtome: a solid metal, hand-cranked, precision-machine throwback to another scientific era. It was manufactured by the Spencer Lens Co. of Buffalo in 1931, the same year the Empire State Building opened and gangster Al Capone was sentenced to prison for tax evasion. Though similar machines have long since landed in the junkyard or in museum collections, Arboretum director William “Ned” Friedman is in no hurry to add a replacement to his budget. “Paraffin wax microtomes have been made for more than a century, and the old ones are virtually bombproof. … The technology is timeless, and all that is really required is a little bit of grease every so often and a good sharp knife,”...