The use of the blowpipe in chemical analysis, and in the examination of minerals / by J.J. Berzelius ; translated from the French of M. Fresnel, by J. G. Children. With a sketch of Berzelius' system of mineralogy; a synoptic table of the principal characters of the pure earths and metallic oxides before the blowpipe, and numerous notes and additions by the translator.

  • Jöns Jacob Berzelius
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The use of the blowpipe in chemical analysis, and in the examination of minerals / by J.J. Berzelius ; translated from the French of M. Fresnel, by J. G. Children. With a sketch of Berzelius' system of mineralogy; a synoptic table of the principal characters of the pure earths and metallic oxides before the blowpipe, and numerous notes and additions by the translator. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    HISTORY OF THE BLOWPIPE. Jewellers and other workers in metal on a small scale, avail themselves of the use of the blow- pipe, to direct the flame of a lamp on pieces of metal supported on charcoal, so as to fuse the solder by which they are to be united. This instrument was long employed in the arts, before any one conceived the idea of applying it to chemical experiments, performed in the dry way, as it is called. Bergman tells us, that the first person who so used it was Andrew Swab, a Swedish metallur- gist, and Counsellor of the College of Mines, about the year 1733. He left no work on the subject, and it is unknown to what extent he carried the researches he made with this instrument. Cron- stedt, who laid the foundations of mineralogy, and whose genius so outstripped the age in which he lived, that he was unintelligible to his cotempo- raries, used the blowpipe to distinguish minera] B