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Zürich Herbaria

Microscopic slides

The microscopic slides are glass plates on which diatom shells have been fixed in a medium, enabling direct examination of the preserved organisms. In Friedrich Meister's collection, each slide typically features two labels: one with an identifier and the other providing details about the sampling event and/or observed taxa.

The identifier consists of a 6- or 7-digit number (examples: 908104 / 1712032). The first (6-digit) or two first (7-digit) digits indicate the year in which the slide was created (908104 → year 1909 / 1712032 → year 1917). The next two digits indicate the month in which the slide was made (908104 → month August / 1712032 → month December). The last three digits represent an incremental number for unique identification (908104 → incremental number 104 / 1712032 → sequential number 32). Although these incremental numbers generally increase steadily, they are not always consecutive and often contain gaps. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that 908104 is effectively the 104th slide created by Friedrich Meister in August 1909.

During the digitisation process, the slides were labeled with a barcode (specifically a QR code) in the format ZT-DIATOM-[8-digit number] (e.g., ZT-DIATOM-00003679).