PREFACE IT is probable that a true estimate of the importance and degree of self-realisation of a subject or branch of a subject may be found in the literature to which it gives rise. Judging the analytical chemistry of the non-ferrous alloys from this point of view, it may be seen at once that its importance is of very recent growth, and that even now it is very far behind its sister-rival, the chemistry of the ferrous alloys. that the makers and Fortunately there are abundant signs users of non-ferrous alloys are determined to utilise scientific knowledge and progress to a much greater extent than formerly, and the first essential in any of these advances is accurate chemical analysis. This has resulted in the appearance of a large mass of scattered information in the technical and chemical journals. Generally these have had in view two aims first, accuracy combined with conveni- ence and secondly, accuracy combined with speed. Anyone who has worked through the analysis of an alloy by the methods outlined in the standard text-books of practical chemistry will realise at once that the time-honoured pro- cesses, redolent of unlimited timeand sulphuretted hydrogen, fulfil neither of these two conditions. The aim of this book is to bring within the covers of one volume the methods which in the authors opinion and experience combine as far as possible both these qualifications in the highest degree. A further aim has been to make possible the estimation of one element without the tedious separation from every other element which so often occurs in the older text-books. In view of the huge number of original papers that have appeared and are still appearing on this subject, this book cannot be more than a milestone on the road to greater accuracy and higher speed. At the same time it will be found that the methods recommended are quite fitted to the needs of the works chemist and at the same time are eminently suitable for use in the laboratories of all institutions whose curriculum embraces the analysis of alloys. In order to meet these two classes of students more thoroughly, the work is so arranged that the metals that are to be met with in the course of the analysis are treated from the point of view of pure solutions or pure substances, and this is followed by a chapter in which all the various alloys are treated separately, when the more suitable methods applicable to these alloys are detailed. The courtesy of the Council of the Chemical Society in allowing Figs. 14, 15, 16, 17 and 19 to be reproduced from their Transactionsmust be acknowledged gratefully. Fig. 13 is reproduced from the Chemical News by kind permission of the editor. METALLURGICAL DEPARTMENT, SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY, July 1914. F. I. L. A. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. APPARATUS FOR ELECTROLYTIC ANALYSIS ... 1 II. ELECTROLYTIC ANALYSIS 19 III. PRECIPITATIONS BY MEANS OF HYDROGEN SULPHIDE . 34 IV. LEAD 47 Y. COPPER . 61 VI. BISMUTH 76 VII. ANTIMONY 88 VIII. TIN 101 IX. ARSENIC . . . . . . . . .111 X. ARSENIC, ANTIMONY AND TIN SEPARATIONS . .127 XI. ALUMINIUM AND CHROMIUM . . . .135 XII. NICKEL . . .145 XIII. COBALT . . . 154 XIV. ZINC 161 XV. THE ANALYSIS OF COMMERCIAL ALLOYS . . .171 APPENDIX ...