> Chemical
Education in Eritrea
> Long-Range Research Initiative
of the American Chemistry Council
> Chemistry in Egypt
> News from IUPAC
> Symposia Reports
> New Projects
> Provisional Recommendations
> New Books
> Awards and Prizes
> Conference
Announcements
> Conference Calendar
Download this issue in pdf format. (548KB)
Chemistry International
Vol. 23, No. 4
July 2001Preface from Practical Chemistry by Micro-Methods
It must be evident to many that the time has come for a change in some of the methods of teaching practical chemistry. Classes seem to get larger every year, and the standard is being gradually raised. Much which was done in the first year of a university course must be pushed into the school’s curriculum. It follows that many experiments which could once be performed by each individual must perforce be omitted, and there is a tendency to meet the situation by adapting the practical course rather to the convenience of the laboratory than to the individual needs of the students. The majority who come to the chemical department today, are applying themselves to the science as a means and not as an end, seeing how divergent these ends are, it is a pity that the training must so often be the same. At the best this is but a compromise.
Organic chemistry, particularly, is neglected because of the expense of many reagents and the danger of working with large quantities of inflammable materials. The method of practical microchemistry is that of working with minute quantities of material, specks of solids, drops of liquids. With this method the difficulties which would hamper many a laboratory will be found to vanish. A student, for example, may without danger prepare a few ccs. of the gases, however inflammable or explosive, and he can study the properties of much solvents as school, ether, chloroform or benzene by the use of drops without danger to himself or anxiety to his teacher.
There is nothing which at present is done by students with large apparatus that cannot be done with the micro-method, but there is much that can be done with small apparatus that is sheer waste when done on the larger scale.
With small reagent bottles and small apparatus the benches and general equipment of the laboratory may be greatly simplified. Everything is easier to find and to handle. A student’s whole outfit may be put upon a tea-tray, and with his laboratory thus all at hand the student may sit down to his work with consequent sparing of fatigue to himself and to his teacher. The class room whatever the stage of the work, becomes a place of peace and quiet, and the foul atmosphere so often the result of work on a large scale, is avoided. This means a great gain from the point of view of the student’s health, a matter which in science teaching is often sadly neglected. The methods of micro chemistry are exceedingly rapid, for example, by the use of the table on page 65, one of my staff was able to identify the bases of fifteen unknown simple salts in ten minutes with only one doubtful case. This, I think, must be a record. Such rapid work is the result of using drops, and employing one glass slide instead of several test tubes. Several reactions may be viewed simultaneously, and by the aid of a pocket lens, studied with a care which is not possible with the test-tube. One drop of a solution divided into three parts suffices in many cases to characterise at once an unknown base. After the reaction the slide is washed and dried in a second and ready for the next test. With this sparing of time it follows that much more work can be got into the working hours, and in consequence studies which were once spread over many years may be condensed into a few. The economy also in energy and in expense is enormous, with the result that it is possible to cover a much broader field of study. This book is intended for schools or for the earlier part of a university course, and it covers the practical work required by the conjoint boards of the Royal Colleges of physicians and surgeons.
While describing the methods of micro chemistry, it indicates also how a practical course may be broadened to include exercise, in elementary physical chemistry, qualitative analysis, volumetric analysis, and a brief introduction to organic chemistry is given. Sufficient to give the student a taste for this fascinating subjects.
I would like, in concluding to express my thanks to my colleagues, Mr. W. M. Colles, for his valuable help. The Author wishes to thank Messrs. Baird & Tatlock for so kindly providing the blocks for the illustrations.
EGERTON CHARLES GREY
CAIRO, 1924
News
and Notices - Organizations and People
- Standing Committees
Divisions
- Projects - Reports
- Publications - Symposia
- AMP - Links
Page last modified 16 July 2001.
Copyright © 1997-2001 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
Questions or comments about IUPAC, please
contact the Secretariat.
Questions regarding the website, please contact [email protected]