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engraving from the frontispiece of Worthington Hookers First Book in Chemistry for the Use of Schools and Families (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1862), is one of the oldest pieces of laboratory apparatus. The earliest versions, burning oil, and used in conjunction with the blowpipe, were employed by goldsmiths in ancient Egypt for making jewelry. Alcohol lamps have been present throughout the history of chemistry. There is even one included in virtually every childs chemistry set, or, if not included, directions are supplied for constructing one. In spite of its long history, most alcohol lamps are not used properly, resulting, most often, in ooding of the fuel, leading to burning corks and other re hazards, as well as corrosion of the metal parts. Additionally, most commercially available alcohol lamps need to be modied for use in the microscopy laboratory, where, in addition to general heating requirements, the ame needs to be made smaller, in keeping with the scale of microchemical glassware and technique. Amongst the considerations in making and/or modifying an alcohol lamp for microscopical use are: (1) size, capacity, and form of the fuel container (faceted/ unfaceted, globe-shaped, squat; glass, metal); (2) nature of the fuel and its temperature when burned; (3) fuels and the visibility of their ames; (4) caps: ground-glass, steel, aluminum, brass; glass hood, metal hood; (5) wick material: woven cotton, cotton string, glass ber; (6) wick size and shape; (7) wicks feed mechanism; (8) wicks feed-through support: glass, brass, copper, steel, ceramic; (9) portability; (10) provision for pressure equalization. 1 2006
Figure 1.
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Figure 2 illustrates, on the left, an almost new version of the same kind of glass-stoppered alcohol lamps as in Figure 1, but with a cork that ts lower in the neck. On the right of Figure 2 is an example of an alcohol lamp with a threaded neck, and an aluminum screw-threaded cap, with integral wick support, and a loose-tting aluminum hood. Neither lamp has a vent hole.
Figure 2 Figure 3 illustrates a Balsam bottle that has been converted into an alcohol lamp; the hood, with ground-glass base, is missing perhaps that is why someone converted this container. The hole in the cork has not been bored straight, and the wick does not protrude enough. There is no vent hole. On the right, in Figure 3, is illustrated a replacement cap and wick assembly for an alcohol lamp with a threaded neck. It features a captive wick cover, and the wick end has been bound to prevent fraying. This assembly could be improved upon by drilling a 1/16 or smaller hole in the top of the metal screw cap, to act as a pressure vent.
Figure 3 3 2006
Figure 4 illustrates two examples of faceted fuel reservoirs. The faceted feature is not merely decorative; it is an old design purposely made so as to be able to tip the lamp while it is in use, as illustrated by the lamp on the right. The reason for tilting the lamp while in use is so that when soldering, or using the blowpipe, or when performing borax bead and microcosmic salt tests, or sharpening tungsten needles with molten sodium nitrite, drippings will not fall on to the wick, extinguishing the ame. This style of alcohol lamp is often called a Jewelers Alcohol Lamp. The jewelers lamp on the left has been tted with a cork, and modied for micro use. The jewelers lamp on the right employs a threaded metal cap and hood. Neither lamp has a vent hole, which would be a marked improvement.
Figure 4 Figure 5 illustrates several designs of wicks and their feed-through supports. The brass feed-through on the left is paired with a woven glass ber wick; this tting replaces a cork. The woven-cotton wick on the right has been paired with a formed glass feed-through support, which would have to be tted through a cork, or used without one. The upper wick assembly uses a combination glass and ceramic wick support, paired with a glass ber wick. All three of these are intended for contemporary oil-burning lamps used for decorative purposes, with or without optional aromatherapy intentions, but they can be adapted to the laboratory alcohol lamp. A vent hole is not generally necessary when using these wick supports, as they t loosely in the mouth of the reservoir another reason to avoid overlling. Figure 6 illustrates three alcohol lamps that are components of chemistry sets for youngsters; similar alcohol lamps have been supplied in such kits for over 80 years. The lamps illustrated here are all relatively small about one ounce capacity but that size is totally adequate for both these sets and for general microscopy; indeed, similar lamps are often a part of microscope sets for youngsters. The three lamps here are all 40-50 years old. The alcohol lamp on the left, from a Gilbert Chemistry Outt, is tted with an arrangement for elementary blowpipe work; the tip is constricted to a narrow opening, and in use a piece of rubber tubing is tted to the lower end, and the user blows through the other end of the tubing, keeping the cheeks fully puffed out, inhaling through the nose in typical blowpipe fashion, so as to maintain a steady stream of air to produce a very sharp, intensely hot ame. The alcohol lamp in the middle, from a Gilbert Chemistry Outt of a different era, is typical and unremarkable. The alcohol lamp on the right is from a Chemcraft Chemistry Outt (Porter Chemical Company), and has the molded-in legend Porter Alcohol Lamp; the wick is badly in need of trimming! None of these lamps feature a vent hole. 4 2006
Figure 5
Figure 6
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Figure 7 is a page from a Chemcraft Chemistry Outt manual, describing and illustrating the use of the blowpipe feature of the alcohol lamp.
Figure 7
Figure 8 is The Alcohol Lamp page from the Skilcraft Chemlab Manual. The text says Do not ll to the top of the bottle and Fill the lamp bottle with alcohol only to the start of the neck or lower. The Fill Line in the illustration is, however, too high. This manual also says The best fuel for the alcohol lamp is any commercially available denatured ethyl alcohol (grain alcohol), available only by prescription . Do not use methyl alcohol (wood alcohol) because it has additional poisonous properties, isopropyl alcohol is readily available, but it will burn with a sooty ame.
Figure 8
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Figures 9 and 10 are pages from other Do-it-Yourself sources; interestingly, the text in Figure 10 recommends making a wick cap from a brass rie cartridge (this reference is from a UNESCO source).
Figure 9
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Figure 10
It was Short (Microscopic Microscopic Determination of the Ore Minerals, Minerals M.N. Short, Geological Survey Bulletin 914, USGPO, Washington, D.C., Second Edition, 1940) who illustrated and described the use of a narrow brass tube and cotton string to make an alcohol lamp for microchemical methods See Figure 11. Figure 12 illustrates two British-made alcohol lamps both are excellent. The capacity of both lamps is about two ounces. They are both dimensionally stable, and both employ ground-glass hoods of different design. The lamp on the left has a loosely laid in ceramic wick holder, and is vented by its loose t. The lamp on the right has a female-threaded brass tting cemented to the glass neck, and a threaded screw-in brass top/wick holder, which does have a vent hole drilled through! Filled no more than about half way, this lamp is ideal for general heating purposes. In Britain, these spirit lamps commonly burn Methylated Spirit, often slightly tinged with Gentian Violet, as illustrated in Figure 12.
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Figure 11
Figure 12
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Figure 13 illustrates an interesting alcohol lamp for portable or eld use. It is part of a World War II Field, Needle Sterilization Kit. It is nickel-plated brass, and t in the bottom of a cigarette-package-size, front-opening metal box with this burner at the bottom, and an elongated, round-bottomed sterilization tray on top, which was just large enough to hold one or two hypodermic needles. A quarter-ounce of alcohol provides enough fuel for this lamp to burn for one hour. This is the alcohol lamp I use in my Field Kit. I recently had the opportunity to modify a commercially-available alcohol lamp for one of the staff members, and then two others on the staff also requested one. I started with the purchase of an alcohol lamp from McCrone Microscopes & Accessories; this lamp is illustrated on the left in Figure 14. It is not a bad designsmall, stable, metal cap/wick holder and hood made of brass; the only thing it was missing for microscopical work was a pressure-equalization vent, and a smaller wick. A vent was made by drilling a 1/16 hole through the top of the cap. For the smaller wick I decided to custom-make a piece of brass that would t inside the supplied opening, but that would itself have a much smaller opening that would accept a ne woven-cotton string, or a ne woven glass ber wick. The custom-made piece is shown lying between the two lamps in Figure 14, and installed in the lamp on the right.
Figure 13
Figure 14 10 2006
Specically, the outside diameter of the wick tube was 0.275, and the inside diameter was just under 0.250. I started by chucking a 2 length of diameter brass rod into my Unimat, a small hobbyists lathe, and turned a 5/32 length at the end down to 0.16 diameter. This end was then center drilled, and a 3/32 hole was drilled something more than 1 deep. The rod was then turned down to 0.24. The other end of the rod was then cut-off and faced so that it was 1 long, plus the 5/32 extension; this is the piece shown lying down in Figure 14. This adapter was then epoxied into the wick tube, and the new string wick threaded through. Figure 15 shows a close-up of the completed modication, wick reducer and breather vent. As a nal touch for my colleagues, I embellished the shoulder of their personal lamp with their own initials, by employing a rapidly rotating zirconium rod chucked into a hobbyists motorized hand tool.
Figure 15
uorescein or a blue or purple aniline dye. There are hundreds of recipes for denaturing ethanol. In addition to personalizing ones own alcohol lamp with their monogram, it is also possible to further individualize ones alcohol lamp by adding a touch of dye to achieve some characteristic color, and to add a few drops of ones favorite perfume or cologne to the fuel! There are differences in the heat of combustion for different alcohols, and there are websites that treat the energy transformations in such chemical combustion reactions, but in practical use of the alcohol lamp they make little material difference.
Conclusion
There are signicant differences in the temperature of various regions of alcohol and candle ames, and different portions are either more oxidizing or more reducing, but these differences are best learned by developing the technique that comes from using the various portions of the ame in borax bead tests, charcoal block fusions, and blowpipe analysis, as well as conducting sublimations, melting point determinations, decompositions, melt-backs, and other thermal microscopy procedures. A good book for learning these procedures as applied to minerals is, Identication and Qualitative Analysis of Minerals by Orsino Smith (Van Nostrand, New Jersey; Second Edition, 1953). The main, immediate improvements that can be made to all alcohol lamps is to provide a small vent hole, and not ll the fuel reservoir more than about half way. Next, reduce the wick size for the required smaller scale of work by improvising or custom-making a diameter-reduction adapter.
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