A Textbook of Assaying

A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those?by Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer

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Title: A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines.
Author: Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer

Release Date: July 3, 2006 [eBook #18751]
Language: English
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A TEXT-BOOK OF ASSAYING: FOR THE USE OF THOSE CONNECTED WITH MINES.
by
C. AND J. J. BERINGER.
Revised by
J. J. BERINGER,
Assoc. of the Royal School of Mines; Fellow of the Chemical Society and of the Inst. of Chemistry; Principal of the Camborne Mining School; and Late Public Analyst for the County of Cornwall.
With numerous Diagrams and Tables.
Ninth Edition.

London: Charles Griffin and Company, Limited, Exeter Street, Strand. 1904. [All rights reserved.]

PUBLISHER'S NOTE TO THE NINTH EDITION
The continued popularity of the present work, the last edition of which was published only a little over a year ago, continues to be a source of gratification to the publishers, who have much pleasure in issuing the present edition.
January 1904.
PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION
The principal changes in this edition are additions to the articles on Gold, Cyanides, and Nickel, and a much enlarged Index. The additional matter covers more than forty pages.
J. J. BERINGER.
CAMBORNE, January 1900.

PREFACE.
The Text-book now offered to the public has been prepared to meet the existing want of a practical "handy book" for the Assayer.
To mining men the word "assaying" conveys a sufficiently clear meaning, but it is difficult to define. Some writers limit it to the determination of silver and gold, and others imagine that it has only to do with "furnace-work." These limitations are not recognised in practice. In fact, assaying is becoming wider in its scope, and the distinction between "assayers" and "analysts" will in time be difficult to detect. We have endeavoured rather to give what will be of use to the assayer than to cover the ground within the limits of a faulty definition.
At first our intention was to supply a description of those substances only which have a commercial value, but on consideration we have added short accounts of the rarer elements, since they are frequently met with, and occasionally affect the accuracy of an assay.
Under the more important methods we have given the results of a series of experiments showing the effect of varying conditions on the accuracy of the process. Such experiments are often made by assayers, but seldom recorded. Statements like those generally made--that "this or that substance interferes"--are insufficient. It is necessary to know under what conditions and to what extent.
Students learning any particular process cannot do better than repeat such a series of experiments. By this means they will, at the same time, acquire the skill necessary for performing an assay and a confidence in their results based upon work under different conditions.
The electrolytic method of copper assaying given under Copper is a modification of Luckow's; it was introduced by us into the offices of the Rio Tinto Copper Company, and has been in use for many years with success. This modification is now employed in copper-works in Spain, Germany, and England, and is used in place of the dry assay for the commercial valuation of copper ores.
We have adhered to the gram and the "c.c." as