Cell Div.

Microscopic time-lapse footage of cell division.; This film may likely be related to John Nash Ott's extensive time-lapse photography research on the growth and division of malignant cancer cells that he conducted in the late 1940s on behalf of Dr. William B. Wartman, chair of Northwestern University's pathology department. During the course of this research, Ott inadvertently discovered that he could encourage cell division to occur within tissue culture slides taken from rat tumors by chilling the samples before he filmed them.; Ott recounts in his autobiography, My Ivory Cellar: The Story of Time-Lapse Photography, Northwestern University Medical School had pre-ordered a special phase-contrast microscope that was developed by the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company and was designated for Ott's experiments, but it had an anticipated two-year delivery date. During this time, M. Herbert Eisenhart, president of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company, coincidentally attended one of Ott's visiting time-lapse lectures in Rochester, New York, where the company was headquartered. He expressed interest in Ott's time-lapse work, and after Ott arrived home and wrote Eisenhart a letter, Northwestern University received the microscope within two weeks.