An easily made solvent trough for use in descending paper chromatography

IT is usual to make solvent troughs from sealed lengths of glass tubing in which the opening for the papers is cut1, ground2,3, or pulled out of heat-softened glass4. These methods are difficult and usually involve many fractures. Troughs have also been made from stainless steel5,6and from pressed sheet metal coated with resistant enamel7, but these are not easy to make and are relatively costly, especially for workers in areas where financial grants are meagre and materials and apparatus difficult to obtain.