Micropipettes and fabrication thereof

The method of making a pair of multiple barrel glass micropipettes comprising:

• assembling multiple individual glass tubes into a bundle such that portions of the tubes in an axially central region of the bundle are arranged side-by-side;
• softening the axially central region of the bundle;
• axially elongating the softened axially central region of the bundle to form a pair of axially spaced apart opposing tapers in the bundle;
• and then dividing the bundle in two at an axial location between the pair of opposing tapers to yield a pair of multiple barrel micropipettes each of which contains a corresponding one of the two tapers;
• including the further step of then forming in at least one of the pair of micropipettes, a bulbous shape at the one axial end thereof at which it was divided from the other, such bulbous shape being formed so as to be radially enlarged relative to an immediately contiguous portion of the micropipette.

The method of making a pair of multiple barrel glass micropipettes comprising:

• assembling multiple individual glass tubes into a bundle such that portions of the tubes in an axially central region of the bundle are arranged side-by-side;
• softening the axially central region of the bundle;
• axially elongating the softened axially central region of the bundle to form a pair of axially spaced apart opposing tapers in the bundle;
• and then dividing the bundle in two at an axial location between the pair of opposing tapers to yield a pair of multiple barrel micropipettes each of which contains a corresponding one of the two tapers;
• including the further step of then relatively advancing a heating source toward the one axial end of at least one of the pair of micropipettes at which it was divided from the other to radially displace material at said one axial end in a manner that forms a shoulder via which said axial end can be gripped for pulling in a subsequent operation to size said one axial end.