I do know a way of getting that last bit of tissue out of a Terebra,
Turritella, etc., or out of a microshell. Unfortunately it is not available
to the average collector, but I'll describe it anyway.  The reason it is so
difficult to clean inside these narrow spaces is that the air in the space
won't come out, and the air bubble acts as a physical barrier to the entry
of any liquid cleaning solution.  It's like an air embolism that can be
suffered by a diver, which blocks a blood vessel.  I work in a research lab
with all kinds of laboratory equipment available to me, and what I use to
clean narrow shells is a vacuum oven.  It's basically a chamber with a heavy
glass door so you can see what is going on inside, connected to a powerful
vacuum pump.  It also has a heat source, which is what makes it a vacuum
"oven", but I don't use the heat for cleaning shells.  I just use it as a
vacuum chamber.  I take a glass beaker, put a couple of inches of sand in
the bottom, and fill it with bleach solution.  Then I stick the shells into
the sand, apex down, so that they are held in a vertical position. I put the
beaker into the vacuum oven, close and lock the door, and turn on the vacuum
pump. The air in the shells immediately starts to expand due to the reduced
pressure, and bubbles out of the shells, allowing the bleach solution to
enter, all the way to where the remaining tissue is.  As the bleach reacts
with the tissue in the shell, more bubbles are formed in the reaction, which
likewise expand and rush up out of the shell.  This creates a current which
causes bits of undissolved tissue to follow the bubbles up and out of the
shell.  The "working space" inside such a shell is very small,  so it may
take a half hour to an hour, sometimes longer, to completely clean out the
spire of a Terebra triseriata, but it works!

Paul M.

> ----------
> From:         Conchologists List on behalf of stephen maxwell
> Reply To:     Conchologists List
> Sent:         Friday, November 3, 2006 12:37 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: Cleaning terebra
>
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> On the hot topic of cleaning shells, does any know a way to get that last
> bit out  of the spire of terebras.
> thanks
> stephen
>
> Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com
>

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