U.S. patent number 3,902,972 [Application Number 05/469,458] was granted by the patent office on 1975-09-02 for modified petri dish for automatic inoculation.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Corning Glass Works. Invention is credited to Orville A. Beckford.
United States Patent |
3,902,972 |
Beckford |
September 2, 1975 |
Modified petri dish for automatic inoculation
Abstract
A dish is provided for use in mechanical inoculation devices
employing an inoculating loop or cotton swab. The tray has
compartments containing combinations of differential or selective
media to separate mixtures of gram-positive and gram-negative
bacteria, facilitate isolation of organisms from clinical specimens
and compare colony growth characteristics of pure cultures. The
tray has compartments to separate the media and the media is filled
above the heights of the barriers, so that the swab or inoculating
loop may freely pass from one media to another. The aforementioned
Abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the
application which, of course, is measured by the claims, nor is it
intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any
way.
Inventors: |
Beckford; Orville A. (Port
Washington, NY) |
Assignee: |
Corning Glass Works (Corning,
NY)
|
Family
ID: |
26986642 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/469,458 |
Filed: |
May 13, 1974 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
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329084 |
Feb 2, 1973 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
435/305.2;
435/34; 435/30 |
Current CPC
Class: |
C12M
23/34 (20130101); C12M 23/10 (20130101); C12M
33/06 (20130101); C12M 23/38 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
C12M
1/22 (20060101); C12M 1/32 (20060101); C12M
1/26 (20060101); C12K 001/10 () |
Field of
Search: |
;195/103.5,139 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Monacell; A. Louis
Assistant Examiner: Warden; Robert J.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: King; Leonard H.
Parent Case Text
This application is a continuation in part of my corresponding
application Ser. No. 329,084 filed Feb. 2, 1973 now abandoned.
Claims
What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:
1. A media tray adapted for use with an automatic inoculating
machine, said media tray comprising:
a. a plurality of adjacent compartments defined by a bottom wall
and a series of ribs extending upwardly therefrom and forming an
enclosure; and
b. bacteria growth supporting media contained within said
compartments, at least a portion of the upper surface of said media
extending above the uppermost portion of said ribs whereby
automatically driven inoculating means may freely pass from the
media in one compartment to the media in adjacent compartments;
and
c. means extending from said bottom wall and partially extending
into said media for immobilizing said media.
2. The tray of claim 1 including wall members surrounding the outer
ones of said ribs, said wall members being higher than said
ribs.
3. The tray of claim 2 including a removable cover adapted to fit
over said wall members.
4. The tray of claim 1 including a plurality of first parallel
compartments and a further compartment transverse to the said
parallel compartments.
5. The tray of claim 1 wherein said means comprises pins integrally
with said bottom wall.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A need exists for more uniform methods of inoculation of plates and
further to perform this repetitive task with a minimum of time on
the part of trained technicians. To this end there is currently
much effort being made to develop automatic inoculating machines.
One of the problem areas is the development of a suitable tray
which will permit the use of a simple mechanical movement to
perform the inoculation.
Accordingly, it an object of this invention to provide an improved
multi-media tray for use in an automatic inoculating machine.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A multi-compartment dish is provided having ribs separating the
compartments. Liquid media is filled slightly above the ribs and to
gell in that condition whereby an inoculating tool may traverse
from compartment to compartment without interference. Means are
provided to engage the gelled media to prevent shifting in the
event of shrinkage during gelling or upon drying in storage.
These and other features, objects and advantages of the invention
will, in part, be pointed out with particularity and will, in part,
become obvious from the following more detailed description of the
invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing,
which forms an integral part thereof.
In the various figures of the drawing like reference characters
designate like parts.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the tray with its cover removed;
and
FIG. 2 is a section taken along lines 2--2 of FIG. 1.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The apparatus consists of a tray 10 approximately 15 cm. by 7 cm.
wide and about 4 cm. high. The outer walls 12 of the tray are
preferably indented, as shown at 14 to receive a cover member 16.
Partitions 18 and end barrier 19 extend about half the height,
forming compartments 20a to 20d which contain media 22a to 22e. The
media uses agar as a gelling material. Because of its cohesive
characteristic it forms a meniscus providing a raised ridge 23.
The cover is removed and a specimen is swabbed across a media
contained in compartment 20a using a loop or cotton swab.
Transverse to compartment 20a there are compartments 20b, 20c 20d
and 20e containing any desired combination of selective or
differential media such as gram-positive and gram-negative growth
and inhibiting medias, blood agar, etc.
A sterile loop L is then actuated by a mechanical drive D and is
then driven along path P to spread the culture along the media in a
diluted fashion.
The specific media employed is not part of this invention and is
within the province of the bacteriologist.
One advantage of automatic inoculation is that it avoids
differences in technique between technicians providing greater
uniformity. Further, the technician may perform other duties during
inoculation.
A conventional inoculating loop or a cotton swab may be employed
for uniform inoculation of agar media and colony isolation and
combinations of media may be employed in one tray to isolate or
differentiate between bacterial types. Further, this technique
permits visualization of the overall qualitative, and to some
extent, the quantitative relationships of the various bacterial
types in the sample tested with uniformity.
The media has a tendency to shrink after filling and to stabilize
the media pins 24 are provided which are integrally molded. The
pins capture the solidified gelled media and prevent shifting.
Instead of pins the stabilizing means may be ribs, cleats or
otherwise shaped protruding element.
Having thus disclosed the best embodiment of the invention
presently contemplated, it is to be understood that various changes
and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without
departing from the spirit of the invention.
* * * * *