Abstract
THE contents of this slight book include the orthodox blowpipe tests such as are found in most books on qualitative analysis, together with an account of the behaviour of some of the principal ores before the blowpipe. A meritorious feature is that the general chemical action of the common fluxes is explained. In other respects it is not easy to find points calling for special praise. An incorporation of some at least of the admirable tests described in Bunsen's “Flammenreactionen” would have made an improvement. The following minor errors are perhaps worth noting. On p. 10, decrepitation is described as “the crackling of a substance due to the sudden expansion of combined water on heating,” and incandescence as “the white light emitted by a substance that is infusible when subjected to a high temperature.” On pp. 11 and 13, silver oxide is printed AgO. On p. 17, the formulæ ot borax and microcosmic salt are given without water of crystallisation—an important omission from the assayer's point of view. On p. 40, the only test for phosphates is that of flame colouration, the reduction with sodium or magnesium being omitted.
The Elements of Blowpipe Analysis.
By Frederick Hutton Getman. Pp. 77. (New York: The Macmillan Company. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1899.)
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The Elements of Blowpipe Analysis . Nature 61, 176 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1038/061176a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/061176a0