A System of Instruction in the Practical Use of the Blowpipe: Being A Graduated Course Of Analysis For The Use Of Students And All Those Engaged In The Examination Of Metallic CombinationsAnonymous
Science
A System of Instruction in the Practical Use of the Blowpipe: Being A Graduated Course Of Analysis For The Use Of Students And All Those Engaged In The Examination Of Metallic Combinations
Anonymous
Blowpipe
TELLURIUM.--This metal fuses with the greatest readiness, and is
reduced to vapor under both flames with fumes, and coats the charcoal
with a deposit of tellurous acid. This deposit is white near the
centre, and is of a dark yellow near the edges. It may be driven from
place to place by the flame of oxidation, while that of reduction
volatilizes it with a green flame. If there be a mixture of selenium
present, then the color of the flame is bluish-green.
ARSENIC.--This metal is volatilized without fusing, and covers the
charcoal both in the oxidizing and reducing flames with a deposit of
arsenious acid. This coating is white in the centre, and grey towards
the edges, and is found some distance from the assay. By the most
gentle application of the flame, it is immediately volatilized, and if
touched for a moment with the reducing flame, it disappears, tinging
the flame pale blue. During volatilization a strong garlic odor is
distinctly perceptible, very characteristic of arsenic, and by which
its presence in any compound may be immediately recognized.
ANTIMONY.--This metal fuses readily, and coats the charcoal under both
flames with antimonious acid. This incrustation is of a white color
where thick, but of a bluish tint where it is thin, and is found
nearer to the assay than that of arsenic. When greatly heated by the
flame of oxidation, it is driven from place to place without coloring
the flame, but when volatilized by the flame of reduction, it tinges
the flame blue. As antimonious acid is not so volatile as arsenious
acid, they may thus be easily distinguished from one another.
When metallic antimony is fused upon charcoal, and the metallic bead
raised to a red heat, if the blast be suspended, the fluid bead
remains for some time at this temperature, giving off opaque white
fumes, which are at first deposited on the surrounding charcoal, and
then upon the bead itself, covering it with white, pearly crystals.
The phenomenon is dependent upon the fact, that the heated button of
antimony, in absorbing oxygen from the air, developes sufficient heat
to maintain the metal in a fluid state, until it becomes entirely
covered with crystals of antimonious acid so formed.
BISMUTH.--This metal fuses with ease, and under both flames covers the
charcoal with a coating of oxide, which, while hot, is of an
orange-yellow color, and after cooling, of a lemon-yellow color,
passing, at the edges, into a bluish white. This white coating
consists of the carbonate of bismuth. The sublimate from bismuth is
formed at a less distance from the assay than is the case with
antimony. It may be driven from place to place by the application of
either flame; but in so doing, the oxide is first reduced by the
heated charcoal, and the metallic bismuth so formed is volatilized and
reoxidized. The flame is uncolored.
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