Dropper Hangers that Can Be EasHy Constructed by Students
Owing to mishandling, the thin capillary tip of glass droppers is very often broken by students. Although the 108s of droppers may not mean anything in financial terms, students should know how to handle even this simple tool properly as a oart of mod lahoratorv oradice. In appropriate use of dn~ppem,the most important aspect is where and how to lay them by in between their uses. No commercial dropper stand is available. Obviously, if students had something of thissort, their persistent demands for new droppers would come down significantly. Below we describe dropper hangers that can be constructed very easily by students themselves. Apart from helping in the safe handling of the droppers, the self-co~~truction of these dropper hangers by the students generates a sense of creativity in them.
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soft capper wire and two %-in. screws. Leaving adistance All that is needed for eachdropper hanger is 2 ft of 14 S.W.G. of around 1% in. from anend, the wireis folded amund the upper portion ofthe dropper tuhe. Subsequent folds aremade a t every inch, in the manner as shown in the left figure. One and a half inch of wire is again left a t the other end. This wire can he folded togive any geometric shape. A few examples are shown in the center figure. Each student can produce adifferent design. At the two ends the wire is bent into vertical rings through which the hanger is screwed to a suitable surface, preferably the wooden reagent shelf, above the working bench of the student. Another design can he an aluminium sheet cut into the shape shown in the right figure. Holes of different sizes are drilled into this sheet, and it is also similarly fixed to s suitable wooden surface with the help of screws. The hangers made thus can accommodate as many droppers as the number of ringsholes and even droppers of different tuhe size. The students should he encouraged to reserve a separate dropper for a particular solvent or reagent. In these hangers the droppers always remain in a vertical position with the tips facing downward. This ia the position in which there is least chance of contamination. Hence, droppers can even he used without washing and drying every time before use.
Saranjlt Slngh Amarjlt Slngh D e p m e n t of pharmaceutical Sclences
Panlab Unlvenity Chandigsrh-180014 India
Volume 66
Number 11 November 1989
967
