The measurement of magnification in the electron microscope is always troublesome especially when a goniometer stage is in use, since there can be wide variations from calibrated values. One elegant method (L.M.Brown, private communication) of avoiding the difficulties of standard methods would be to fit a device which displaces the specimen a small but known distance and recording the displacement by a double exposure. Such a device would obviate the need for changing the specimen and guarantee that the magnification was measured under precisely the conditions used.Such a small displacement could be produced by any suitable transducer mounted in one of the specimen translation mechanisms. In the present case a piezoelectric crystal was used. Modern synthetic piezo electric ceramics readily give reproducible displacements in the right range for quite modest voltages (for example: Joyce and Wilson, 1969).
