This box contains a portable blowpipe which enables producing a more intense, hot, controllable flame by blowing a spirit lamp. The flame was used to heat ores and minerals on the spot, in order to be able to determine their chemical composition. The box also contains various accessories like a burner. The blowpipe itself has an ivory mouthpiece and at the other end a spherical reservoir to trap moisture from the breath. Apart from the pipes to be blown yourself, automatic spirit blowpipes existed since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, there were blowpipes operated by bellows and working with oxygen, so as to achieve a higher temperature.
Blowpipe used in the analysis of minerals
1775 - 1799