Instruments used in microbiology

Instruments used specially in microbiology are as follows:^[1][2]

Instrument list

Instrument	Uses
autoclave	used for sterilization of glass ware and media
auto-destruct syringes	specimen collection
Bijou bottle	a cylindrical small glass bottle with a screw cap used as a culture medium holder
Blood collection bottle	to collect blood by venipuncture
Brittany	a process of free from spore-bearing bacteria
Candle jar	historically used for anaerobiosis; a lit candle was placed in as air-tight jar such that when it went out it would be because it used up all the available oxygen
Castaneda's medium / Castaneda's bottle	used for simultaneous solid and liquid cultures in many bottles
Centrifuge	to separate supernatant & palette
Cragie tube	see link
Desiccator	to dry things
Durham's tube	used to detect gas production in sugar fermentation media; the tube is placed in an inverted fashion so that gases produced get trapped in it and do not float away to the surface
Gas-pak	releases gases to remove oxygen from a closed container, usually for anaerobiosis
Haemagglutination plate	for viral culture detection
Incubator	used for bacterial or fungal cultures
Inoculation loop:	used to inoculate test samples into culture media for bacterial or fungal cultures, antibiograms, etc.
Latex agglutination tiles	for serological analysis
Lovibond comparator	a type of a colorimeter
McCartney's bottle or Flat medical bottle	for simultaneous solid and liquid cultures.
McIntosh and Filde's anaerobic jar	production of anaerobic conditions for organisms that die in the presence of even little oxygen (anaerobiosis), e.g. tetanus bacteria
Microtitre plates	for ELISA
Nichrome wire loop	used to inoculate test samples into culture media for bacterial or fungal cultures, antibiograms, etc.; reheated by flaming to red hot before use
Petri dish/agar plate	to act as a supporting container to hold the culture medium in
Platinum wire loop	used to inoculate test samples into culture media for bacterial or fungal cultures, antibiograms, etc.; reheated by flaming to red hot before use
Pre-sterilized disposable container	specimen collection
Pre-sterilized disposable swabs / NIH swab / postnasal swab	specimen collection
Pre-sterilized disposable syringe / auto-destruct syringes	specimen collection
Serological test slides like those for ASO, VDRL, rheumatoid factor	vide links
Sterile loops	used to inoculate test samples into culture media for bacterial or fungal cultures, antibiograms, etc.; not heated before use—these are disposable pre-sterilised
Thermal cycler	used to amplify segments of DNA via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process.
Tissue culture bottles	to grow or keep alive cells or tissue from a living organism, e.g. stem cells
Tuberculin syringe	as a normal syringe or to perform Mantoux test
Universal container	a cylindrical small glass bottle with a screw cap used as a culture medium holder
Vaccine bath	used to heat vaccine containing medium gently to around 45-55 degrees Celsius during vaccine production
Microscope	to observe microscopic specimens that cannot be seen by the naked eye.
Vacuum pump	to draw out the air from any closed chamber before pumping back CO2, O2 or N2, usually for anaerobiosis
VDRL rotator	for VDRL test

As well as those "used in microbiological sterilization and disinfection" (see relevant section).

Image gallery

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  An inoculation loop is used to transfer bacteria for microbiological culture.

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  Petri dish

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  Agar plate

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  Tuberculin syringe

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  Candle jar

References

1. Textbook of Microbiology by Prof. C P Baveja, ISBN 81-7855-266-3
2. Textbook of Microbiology by Ananthanarayan and Panikar, ISBN 81-250-2808-0