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A SIMPLIFIED ELECTROLYSIS APPARATUS LOUIS TEICHMAN George Washington High School, New York, N. Y.
THEusual device for electrolysis of water is the bulky, fragile, and relatively expensive Hoffman apparatus. The apparatus here described is easily constructed and suitable for individual laboratory work by high-school rhemistry students. Twenty or more such sets of apparatus can easily be stored in little space. A polyethylene or clear plastic dish, such as a butter dish cover, a refrigerator bowl, or an ice-cream custard cup, serves as the base of the apparatus. Two holes of suitable size are melted through the bottom of the dish by applying the heated mouth of a four-inch test tube. The electrodes, fused into glass tubing, are inserted in rubber stoppers and the stoppers placed in the plastic dish as shown in the diagram. The dish is mounted on a tripod, filled with acidulated water to just above the level of the electrodes, and the filled test tubes are inverted over the electrodes. The filament supports of a photoflood lamp or a high wattage projection lamp may be used as the electrodes. If such electrodes are used, the polarity, once established. should be retained.
VOLUME 34, NO. 6, JUNE, 1952
