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I was wondering if anybody can explain what qualitative difference  
exist, if any, between different brands of plain glass slides. For  
example, over on the Ted Pella page ( http://www.tedpella.com/histo_html/slides.htm 
  ), for a 2-box pack of 144 slides, the price varies from about $10  
for the Pella Economy Slides, all the way up to $40 or $60+ for Gold  
Seal or Corning slides.

My question is, is there any advantage or optical difference with the  
more expensive slides? Corning advertises theirs as "water white"  
glass, which I imagine implies something about the transmittance or  
refractive index, but I'm not sure.