APPLIED RESEARCH LABORATORIES, INC

---

REPORT

One QUANTOVAC One operator One technique Many savings in...

Complete steel and cast iron analysis in two minutes • Now through advanced application of vacuum spectrometry, ARL's direct-reading Quantovac provides complete analytical control using a single sample. All of the important control, residual and alloying elements —including C, S, P and As —are analyzed in all types of alloys. Operation is a simple automatic procedure for regular laboratory personnel. • Substantial savings in furnace operation are introduced by eliminating "wet chemical" analysis — greatly increasing productivity per man hour— minimizing hold time on each heat. • The Quantovac analyzes up to 23 of the above elements simultaneously and records their percentage concentrations in any sample within 2 minutes. • The increased range of 1700 to 34 50 A permits analysis of former "problem elements" with an accuracy and precision never before obtained. • ARL's unique integrating and recording console provides permanent inked records of analyses as well as an illuminated visual readout system. • Ask your nearby ARL representative about the Quantovac, or write for technical brochure. "Vbur inquiry will be answered fully and promptly. «.Trade Mork

APPLIED RESEARCH L A B O R A T O R I E S , I N C . subsidiary of BAUSCH & LOME OPTICAL CO. P.O. BRANCH OFFICES

B O X 1710, G L E N D A L E 5, C A L I F O R N I A

NEW YORK

· PITTSIH.-RGII • DETROIT · CHICAGO LACSANNE, Switzerland · LONDON, England Circle No. 118 on Readers' Service Card

3 4 A

·

ANALYTICAL

CHEMISTRY

·

HOUSTON

·

I.OSANOILIS

but perhaps a broader interpretation needs to be given to these functions. At the level of material things—elementary substances, compounds, and mixtures—there is perhaps a need for more emphasis on relationship analysis. This could be met by emphasizing the information on relationship that some of the newer techniques—infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, x-ray, and optical spectroscopy—can give. It is quite possible, too, that explicit recognition should be given now to the analytical functions at the levels of symbols and concepts: e. g. through the use of set-theory. This suggestion will bring some disagreement among chemists. Yet it deserves consideration for the following reasons, all of which return us to the observations about current changes in emphasis in analytical chemistry made earlier in this essay. If we can rightly maintain that the triad of activities—"analysis," "synthesis," and "reduction to practice"—are inseparable parts of chemistry, and that increasing specialization born of, and bearing, increased knowledge tends to separate these activities with loss to all, then it would seem that a move which counters this division is desirable. One partial move in this direction appears to be occurring through changes in some college curricula. This move is to drop the classical second-year course in analytical chemistry and introduce its values into other courses. These values are usually described as "the quantitative approach," usually applied to dealing with materials in the laboratory. We have seen that "analysis" is much more than this. We would suggest that the journal, ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, could assist in these changes editorially by examining the trend from time to time, and emphasizing repeatedly the values of the analytical part of chemistry. These values arise through the proper functioning of the whole of chemistry, where our triad of activities reinforce each other. (Values, in general, result from the proper functioning of whole systems, but this more general matter is outside our present scope.) Thus it is important to see that the values