Gasdischarge Etching Applied on Sections of Beech and Ash

In the last few years several investigators have drawn attention to the possibility of etching in a low voltage gasdischarge. In general etching is a very widely spread technique applied to specimens studied both in optical and electron microscopy. As far as this is done chemically, swelling often occurs, especially with organic materials with a polymer nature. When gasdischarge etching is applied this swelling is avoided (Isings and Spit, 1964) and it seems to be very suitable for high polymers (Spit, 1963). Two types of discharges have been used viz. a high frequency discharge by Jakopic (1961) and Grasenick (1961a) and a direct voltage discharge by Spit (1961).