Wet analysis in the 60s

[s***@aol.com]

Hi,
I was an ONC/HNC night-school student at Doncaster Technical College,
Yorkshire, between 1962 and 1967.
The chemical analysis practical activities were wet "semi-micro";
these used an aluminium heating block and burner and a set of
miniature beakers, test and boiling tubes.

There was folding work-card, pink on the outside (if memory serves),
with a flow chart procedure for the identification of inorganic
radicals.

It is this work-card that I am trying to trace / acquire.

This, both from a nostalgia view point (yes, I know that may sound
sad, but I can still remember the smell of test solutions boiling over
in the lab.)
and
I think it would be useful to introduce the discipline of this type of
activity into the work of my current students.

Regards
Mel Sharpe

[Marvin]

Post by s***@aol.com
Hi,
I was an ONC/HNC night-school student at Doncaster Technical College,
Yorkshire, between 1962 and 1967.
The chemical analysis practical activities were wet "semi-micro";
these used an aluminium heating block and burner and a set of
miniature beakers, test and boiling tubes.
There was folding work-card, pink on the outside (if memory serves),
with a flow chart procedure for the identification of inorganic
radicals.
It is this work-card that I am trying to trace / acquire.
This, both from a nostalgia view point (yes, I know that may sound
sad, but I can still remember the smell of test solutions boiling over
in the lab.)
and
I think it would be useful to introduce the discipline of this type of
activity into the work of my current students.
Regards
Mel Sharpe

Is there room in your curriculum for another course? Or is
there one you would eliminate? And what is your specific
objective? I'm guessing that you want to lead the students
through a logical system. If so, is there another way that
doesn't depend on an obsolete technology? Your first problem
in the course you propose would surely be to get the
students to pay attention.

I took a course on qualitative inorganic analysis as an
undergrad ca. 1947. The postwar years were when methods
based on physics were replacing wet chemistry methods in
analytical chemistry, but undergrad education hadn't kept
up. I never, ever, had a reason to use the methods as a
working analytical chemist. I did a lot of qualitative
analyses by spectroscopy.