The BEEM story began in 1961 in the electron microscope laboratory at
Rockefeller University in New York, NY. This was one of the world's first
TEMs dedicated for diagnostic pathology, and the two operators of this early
TEM, Stanley Brown and Al Revizin, were perhaps the first in history to
realize that one had to develop more efficient ways to process large numbers
of samples for TEM. At this point in time, embedding capsules did not exist.
This is when the concept of the first Size 00 BEEM capsule was conceived.
Brown and Revizin were not wealthy men, but they literally risked their
entire personal resources to commission a mold maker to produce a tool that
no one at that time really knew for sure would either work or produce a
capsule that would be accepted as the only way to embed tissue samples for
TEM. And much to everyone's surprise, their first prototype products seemed to work
very well, although there were some difficulties with the way the early capsules "cut".
With the help of a plastics expert, a special plastic resin was formulated that
could be both molded economically, and yet,once cured, the capsule could be
easily cut away without unwanted adhesion of the capsule to the embedment.
With the passing of time, like with the varnish on a Stradivarius violin, or
the Coca Cola secret syrup formula, others have tried to duplicate the
secret formulation of the plastic used for BEEM capsules but no one has
succeeded!
Mr. Revizin passed away in the mid-1980's in a tragic automobile accident in
the Bronx in New York and Stanley Brown continued to expand the business,
developing other products, other geometries of embedding capsules, the
popular BEEM capsule press, and other items used by anyone using the
capsules and doing tissue embedding. In January 2004, Stanley Brown passed
away, and the business now has new owners.
But we continue to uphold the nearly half century tradition of BEEM, Inc. to
always offer quality products for reasonable prices. If you have any
suggestions for new BEEM products,
we would welcome your suggestions.
