Instruction sur l'essai des matieres d'argent par la voie humide. Publiee par la Commission des monnaies et des Medailles.

Paris :: de l'impr. Royale, 1832., 1832. 4to. 88 pp. 6 engraved folding plates of apparatus by Le Blanc; heavily foxed. Contemporary marbled boards with manuscript spine label; extremities somewhat shelf worn. Very good. [170] First edition of this work on the testing of silver materials using a wet method, published by the Commission on Coins and Medals. / "Gay-Lussac made a major contribution to chemical analysis in 1832 when he introduced a volumetric method of estimating silver, which he justly claimed was much more accurate than the centuries-old method of cupellation. He proposed two parallel procedures for this method, one gravimetric, which he (truncated) said was the more accurate, and one volumetric, which had the advantage of simplicity. The principle of both methods was the precipitation of silver chloride. He prepared a standard solution of sodium chloride of such concentration that 100 milliliters precipitated rather less than one gram of silver. Another standard solution of sodium chloride one-tenth of the concentration of the first was also prepared. One gram of silver was accurately weighed and then dissolved in nitric acid; 100 milliliters of the concentrated sodium chloride solution was added, and the precipitate of silver chloride was allowed to settle. The procedure was continued until further addition caused no precipitation. This final excess of sodium chloride was found exactly by back-titrating with standard silver nitrate solution. It was characteristic of Gay-Lussac's standard solutions that they could be used only for specific analysis and for given weights of a sample, since the concentration of his solutions had no chemical basis related to equivalent weights. While, therefore, Gay-Lussac must be given credit for showing volumetric analysis to be convenient, rapid, and accurate, the establishment of a general system of volumetric analysis had to wait until the achievements of Fredrik Mohr in the next generation of chemists." – DSB. REFERENCES: Bolton (1893) 471; Cole 509; DSB V, pp. 317-27; Edelstein 960; Ferchl 174; Neville I, p. 504; Partington IV, p. 85; Poggendorff I, pp. 860-864 (putting the imprint date for this item as 1833). See: Maurice Crosland, Gay-Lussac: Scientist and bourgeois, Cambridge University Press, 1978, pp. 188-190, 219-222. (Inventory #: S14238)