Blowpipe analysis

Lotrohr, n. blowpipe, -analyse, /. blowpipe analysis, -beschlag, m. coating before the blowpipe. 

Edelstein, S. M, An historic kit for blowpipe analysis, J Chem Educ, ... 

Arfwedson immediately set to work analyzing meionite and leucite (3, 4, 5). He observed that although the leucite was very infusible, the meionite melted readily before the blowpipe, swelled, and formed an enamel. Since his analysis of meionite agreed closely with Klaproth s analysis of leucite, Arfwedson analyzed a specimen of leucite and found these two minerals to be very similar in composition, except that the leucite contained no lime. Suspecting, therefore, that the lime must be the cause of the meionite s fusibility, he mixed a little lime with the leucite, after which it, too, could be easily melted. 

Car] Friedrich Plattner, 1800-1858. Professor of metallurgy at the Freiberg School of Mines Author of books on blowpipe analysis and the roasting of ores. He was an expert analyst, trained under Heinrich Rose When his careful analysis of pollux was made in 1846, the spectroscope had not yet been invented, and he was unable to recognize the presence of the new element cesium... 

Carl Friedrich Plattner was bom in 1800 at Klein-Waltersdorf near Freiberg, was educated at the Freiberg School of Mines, and became a professor of metallurgy and blowpipe analysis there. He was a great master of the art and science of analytical chemistry, and applied the blowpipe even to quantitative analysis. He made many promising experiments on the oxidation of sulfur dioxide to the trioxide by means of catalysts. Before the work was completed, however, he was stricken with apoplexy, which terminated fatally in 1858 (68). When F lix Pisani (1831—1920) examined pollucite four years after the discovery of cesium, he found that Plattner had mistaken his cesium sulfate for a mixture of the sulfates of sodium and potassium (8, 37, 58). 

Flattner s Blowpipe Analysis was revised by his former student, Hieronymus Theodor Richter, who, with Ferdinand Reich, discovered the element indium. 

Hieronymus Theodor Richter, 1824-1898. Director of the Freiberg School of Mines The first to observe the characteristic blue spectral lines of indium Metallurgist, assayer, and authority on blowpipe analysis... 

Once it entered chemistry, the blowpipe proved to be a most delicate instrument for the qualitative analysis of mineral ores, revealing the presence of minute quantities of metal in very small samples. Chemists typically worked with samples the size of a mustard seed, and in those samples could detect even half a percent of a particular metal. This was far more sensitive than analysis in solution, the wet way. The blowpipe led to the discovery of several metals during Lavoisier s lifetime, including nickel, manganese, molybdenum, and tungsten. Because these metals could not be decomposed, Lavoisier duly listed them in his table of simple substances. 

They wasted no time. Berzelius supplied the young student with a platinum crucible, a wash bottle, a balance and a set of weights, advised him to buy his own blowpipe, and set him to work on the examination of minerals. That was to be his first training m accurate analysis. When Woehler hurried,to Berzelius to show him the result of his work his teacher warned him, Doctor, that was quick but bad." Woehler remembered this valuable advice. Woehler now turned once more to his recently discovered cyanic acid and succeeded in preparing silver cyanate, a compound of this acid. 

Boric or Iwracic anhydride—B,0,—70—is obtained by heating boric acid to redness in a platinum vessel. It is a tmnsparent, glass-like mass, used in blowpipe analysis under the name vitreous boric acid. 

The blowpipe and charcoal are very use-tw things to have about the laboratory in connection with the Bunsen burner. Numerous small operations can be conducted with tbeir aid. Blowpipe analysis is a very valuable means of determining minerals and other substances. 

Lise In metallurgy in analysis of silicates to determine SiO. and alkalies in blowpipe analysis. 

OTHER COMMENTS used in the analysis of silicates to determine silicon dioxide and alkalies also used in the production of boron, heat-resistant glassware, and as a fire-resistant additive for paints other uses include electronics, liquid encapsulation techniques, and blowpipe analysis. 

FIGURE 171. Apparatus employed in blowpipe analysis of minerals was developed to a high state of technology in eighteenth-century Sweden (from Torbern Bergman s 1788 Physical and Chemical Essays). 

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