A System of Instruction in the Practical Use of the Blowpipe. Unknown
and presenting a light bluish or brownish color. The external flame has the highest temperature at d, but this decreases from d to c.
If there is a very high temperature, the oxidation is not effected so readily in many cases, unless the substance is removed a little from the flame; but if the heat be not too high, it is readily oxidized in the flame, or near its cone. If the current of air is blown too freely or violently into the flame, more air is forced there than is sufficient to consume the gases. This superfluous air only acts detrimentally, by cooling the flame.
In general the operation proceeds best when the substance is kept at a dull red heat. The blue cone must be kept free from straggling rays of the yellow or reduction flame. If the analysis be effected on charcoal, the blast should not be too strong, as a part of the coal would be converted into carbonic oxide, which would act antagonistically to the oxidation. The oxidation flame requires a steady current of air, for the purpose of keeping the blue cone constantly of the same length. For the purpose of acquiring practice, the following may be done: Melt a little molybdenic acid with some borax, upon a platinum wire, about the sixteenth of an inch from the point of the blue cone. In the pure oxidation flame, a clear yellowish glass is formed; but as soon as the reduction flame reaches it, or the point of the blue cone touches it, the color of the bead changes to a brown, which, finally, after a little longer blowing, becomes quite dark, and loses its transparency. The cause of this is, that the molybdenic acid is very easily reduced to a lower degree of oxidation, or to the oxide of molybdenum. The flame of oxidation will again convert this oxide into the acid, and this conversion is a good test of the progress of the student in the use of the blowpipe. In cases where we have to separate a more oxidizable substance from a less one, we use with success the blue cone, particularly if we wish to determine whether a substance has the quality, when submitted to heat in the blue cone, of coloring the external flame.
A good reduction flame can be obtained by the use of a small orifice at the point of the blowpipe. In order to produce such a flame, hold the point of the blowpipe higher above the wick, while the nozzle must not enter the flame so far as in the production of the oxidation flame. The point of the blowpipe should only touch the flame, while the current of air blown into it must be stronger than into the oxidation flame. If we project a stream, in the manner mentioned, into the flame, from the smaller side of the wick to the middle, we shall perceive the flame changed to a long, narrow, luminous cone, a b, Fig. 4, the end a of which is enveloped by the same dimly visible blueish colored portion of the flame a, c, which we perceive in the original flame, with its point at c. The portion close above the wick, presenting the dull appearance, is occasioned by the rising gases which have not supplied to them enough oxygen to consume them entirely. The hydrogen is consumed, while the carbon is separated in a state of bright ignition, and forms the internal flame.
Directly above the wick, the combustion of the gases is least complete, and forms there likewise, as is the case in the free flame, a dark blue nucleus d.
If the oxide of a metal is brought into the luminous portion of the flame produced as above, so that the flame envelopes the substance perfectly, the access of air is prevented. The partially consumed gases have now a strong affinity for oxygen, under the influence of the intense heat of that part of the flame. The substance is thus deprived of a part, or the whole, of its oxygen, and becomes reduce according to the strength of the affinity which the substance itself has for oxygen. If the reduction of a substance is undertaken on platinum, by fusion with a flux, and if the oxide is difficult to reduce, the reduction will be completely effected only in the luminous part of the flame. But if a substance be reduced on charcoal, the reduction will take place in the blue part of the flame, as long as the access of air is cut off; but it is the luminous part of the flame which really possesses the greatest reducing power.
The following should be observed in order to procure a good reduction flame:
The wick should not be too long, that it may make a smoke, nor too short, otherwise the flame will be too small to produce a heat strong enough for reduction.
The wick must be free from all loose threads, and from charcoal.
The blast should be continued for a considerable time without intermission, otherwise reduction cannot be effected.
For the purpose of acquiring practice, the student may fuse the oxide of manganese with borax, upon a platinum wire, in the oxidation flame, when a violet-red glass will be obtained; or if too much of the oxide be used, a glass of a dark color and opaque will be obtained. By submitting this glass to the reduction flame, it will become colorless in correspondence to the perfection with which the flame is produced. Or a piece of tin may be fused upon charcoal, and kept in that state for a considerable time, while it presents the appearance of a bright metal on the surface. This will require dexterity in the operator; for, if the oxidation flame should chance to touch the bright metal only for a moment, it is coated with an infusible oxide.
COMBUSTION.—Any flame of sufficient size can be used for blowpipe operations. It may be either the flame of a candle of tallow or wax, or the flame of a lamp. The flame of a wax candle, or of an oil lamp is most generally used. Sometimes a lamp is used filled with a solution of spirits of turpentine in strong alcohol. If a candle is used, it is well to cut the wick off short, and to bend the wick a little toward the substance experimented upon. But candles are not the best for blowpipe operations, as the radiant heat, reflecting from the substance upon the wax or tallow, will cause it to melt and run down the side of the candle; while again, candles do not give heat enough. The lamp is much the most desirable. The subjoined figure, from Berzelius, is perhaps the best form of lamp. It is made of japanned tin-plate, about four inches in length, and has the form and arrangement represented in Fig. 5. K is the lamp, fastened on the stand, S, by a screw, C, and is movable upwards or downwards, as represented in the figure. The posterior end of the lamp may be about one inch square, and at its anterior end, E, about three-quarters of an inch square. The under side of this box may be round, as seen in the figure. The oil is poured into the orifice, A, which has a cap screwed over it. C' is a wickholder for a flat lamp-wick. a is a socket containing the wick, which, when not in use, is secured from dirt by the cap. The figures B and a' give the forms of the cap and socket. The best combustible for this lamp is the refined rape-seed oil, or pure sweet oil. When this lamp is in use, there must be no loose threads, or no charcoal on the wick, or these will produce a smoky flame. The wick, likewise, should not be pulled up too high, as the same smoky flame would be produced.
THE SPIRIT-LAMP.—This is a short, strong glass lamp, with a cap, B, Fig. 6, fitted to it by grinding, to prevent the evaporation of the alcohol. The neck a contains a tube C, made of silver, or of tin plate, and which contains the wick. Brass would not answer so well for this tube, as the spirits would oxidize it, and thus impart color to the flame. The wickholder must cover the edge of the neck, but not fit tight within the tube, otherwise, by its expansion, it will break the glass. It is not necessary that alcohol, very highly rectified, should be burnt in this lamp, although if too much diluted with water, enough heat will not be given out. Alcohol of specific gravity 0.84 to 0.86 is the best.
This lamp is generally resorted to by blowpipe analysts, for the purpose of experiments in glass apparatus, as the oily combustibles will coat the glass with soot. Some substances, when exposed to the dark part of the flame, become reduced and, in statu nascendi, evaporated; but by passing through the external part of the flame, they become oxidized again, and impart a color to the flame. The spirit flame is the most efficient one for the examination of substances the nature of which we wish to ascertain through color imparted to the flame, as that of the spirit-lamp being colorless, is, consequently, most easily and thoroughly recognized by the slightest tinge imparted to it.
It is necessary that in operating with such minute quantities of substances as are used in blowpipe analysis, that they should have some appropriate support. In order that no false results may ensue, it is necessary that the supports should be