[Nhcoll-l] old glass containers

[Callomon,Paul]

It looks as though your lids have been glued on with clear silicone caulk. This can stick to old glass like crazy and makes getting the lid off tricky. Rather than trying to dissolve it or pull the lid off, my recommendation would be to cut through the silicone all round with a fine model-makers's saw or an X-acto knife with a long blade.
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From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] on behalf of Nancy Glover McCartney [nmccartn at uark.edu]
Sent: Friday, March 20, 2015 2:54 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] old glass containers

I have several old glass containers housing fish, herps, inverts, etc. that are getting very low on fluid. I expect the containers are pretty brittle, as a gar with a giant lobster broke with almost no provocation and spewed formalin all over: not a process I want to repeat.  I don't have any idea what these specimens are stored in.

I have attached a few pix of fish and the screw down tops that appear to have parafilm  or an ancient rubber around the lid; some of the smaller containers have what may be beeswax holding in a stopper.

Should I attempt to open and replace fluid?  If so, how? What precautions?

An earlier query 10 years or so ago said just to leave them alone, but maybe there is different advice now.

I'd appreciate some doable suggestion.

My thanks in advance, as always.

Nancy Glover McCartney, PhD
Curator of Zoology
UA Collections Facility
120 BIOMASS
University of Arkansas
2435 Hatch
Fayetteville AR 72701

Phone: 479-575-4370
Fax: 479-575-7464

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