SEMIMICRO EQUIPMENT FOR THE ELEMENTARY LABORATORY SHIRLEY GADDIS
Eureka College, Eureka, Illinois
THE ACCOMPANYING illustration shows the apparatusneeded to stock the desk for a course in
general chemistry taught on a semimicro scale. The unusual pieces of equipment are:
1. Small cream jars, used by cafeterias for honey, marmalade. etc. Since they will stand heating, they can be used for extra beakers or flasks, or for aas-collect in^- bottles. 2. An uncovered 50-ml. beaker.. in .lace of the usual evaoorating dish or crucible, for quantitative work. 3. Clothespins for test-tube holders. Data can be recorded on the sides on the pins and then erased. 4. Toothpicks, used as splints for testing gases. 5. Whiskey glasses (5 cents each) are convenient holders for the 36 test tubes. 6. A glass butter dish for a pneumatic trough. Xilk bottle caps, instead of glass plates. 7. The apparatus for the generation and collection of gases is shown a t the right. I t can be used to prepare Hs, CO. CIH,. SO, CL, HCI, and Brs. A side-arm test tube with delivery tube attached proves t o be more satisfactory than the usual thistletube arrangement. 8. Two Barher tubes and cotton are supplied.
The inventory cost of the apparatus in the elementary desk is cut to $3.87. Non-returnables are 35 cents. The apparatus fits in a drawer 12 by 10 by 4 inches, which is b r o u-~ hby t . the student to a desk permanently equipped with burner tubing, file, ring gtand, ring, wire gauze, hand balance and weights, and a small bottle of glycerin to lubricate rubber stoppers and tubes.
A b w t deck cleat has been designed of glue-laminated wood, replacing iron which is needed for uvlr production. The laminated cleat is stronger by m i g h t and less expensive than the iron cleat.
