238
  Copper, 248
  Antimony, 256
  Arsenic, 260
  Mercury, 262
  Silver, 264

* * * * *

PREFACE.

It is believed the arrangement of the present work is superior to that of many of its predecessors, as a vehicle for the facilitation of the student’s progress.  While it does not pretend to any other rank than as an introduction to the larger works, it is hoped that the arrangement of its matter is such that the beginner may more readily comprehend the entire subject of Blowpipe Analysis than if he were to begin his studies by the perusal of the more copious works of Berzelius and Plattner.

When the student shall have gone through these pages, and repeated the various reactions described, then he will be fully prepared to enter upon the study of the larger works.  To progress through them will then be but a comparatively easy task.

The arrangement of this little work has been such as the author and his friends have considered the best that could be devised for the purpose of facilitating the progress of the student.  Whether we have succeeded is left for the public to decide.  The author is indebted to several of his friends for valuable contributions and suggestions.

S.

Cincinnati, June, 1857.

* * * * *

         Theblowpipe.

* * * * *

Part First.

The use of the blowpipe.

Perhaps during the last fifty years, no department of chemistry has been so enriched as that relating to analysis by means of the Blowpipe.

Through the unwearied exertions of men of science, the use of this instrument has arrived to such a degree of perfection, that we have a right to term its use, “Analysis in the dry way,” in contradistinction to analysis “in the wet way.”  The manipulations are so simple and expeditious, and the results so clear and characteristic, that the Blowpipe analysis not only verifies and completes the results of analysis in the wet way, but it gives in many cases direct evidences of the presence or absence of many substances, which would not be otherwise detected, but through a troublesome and tedious process, involving both prolixity and time; for instance, the detection of manganese in minerals.

Many substances have to go through Blowpipe manipulations before they can be submitted to an analysis in the wet way.  The apparatus and reagents employed are compendious and small in number, so that they can be carried easily while on scientific excursions, a considerable advantage for mineralogists and metallurgists.