Australia's Science Forum

I've started clearing old "stuff" from the Chemical Store room in preparation for our renovations.

We have 3 of these beautiful pieces of equipment. They just yell SCIENCE but what are they and what wew they used for?

Our chemistry teacher (20 years experience) has no idea what they would have been used for. Does anybody know, or have a suggestion for their use??

One thing is for certain, I'm not throwing them out!! They just look too good, perhaps pride of place on top of my new cupboards.

Wendy

(I hope I've managed to get this file attaching right)

Don't throw them out. They are Kipp's apparatus used for making a gas from a liquid and a solid. Mine is made of some kind of plastic product which doesn't allow you to watch the reaction occuring between the solid and the liquid. With any luck you should also have the funnel with an airlock which sits in the top opening. The solid ie. marble chips go in the middle globe and a dilute Hydrochloric acid is added through the funnel sitting in the top globe. The opening on the side of the middle globe should have a tube with a tap for drawing off gas generated. When the tap is closed pressure of the gas forces the liquid down in the bottom reservoir and up into the top and there is no reaction. When the tap is opened the acid rises and reacts with the marble chips releasing gas which can be collected and tested.
Lyn.

Wow I love the look of that!!! Its fantastic!!

We have a couple of these at my school and there is little need now that the school has become a prep. to year 9 school. I'll keep one after the clean up, but because space is minimal in the new buildings for storage, I will probably sell any other excess equipment.
It is a stunning piece of apparatus though, isn't it. A work of art! And if I had a mantelpiece or some other displaying structure in my home I would definitely take one home with me!
I must admit, I have a few others that a local chemical company gave us when it was building a new laboratory. These others leave the Kipp's Apparatus for dead!
Maree

Hi everyone,
We also have one of these and when we were having our schools 50th anniversary open day we polished it up and put it on display with other old equipment. I thought it looked great.
We did get a lot of comments from people asking if it was some sort of bong so I don't know that it was too good for the reputation of the science staff!
Helen

Hi Wendy
Last week i posted a note in the to purchase folder.
This is what i'm after in regards to distillation.
The top piece is called a Bioflask.
NOW ....does anyone have the top bioflask for sale or to give away.
Or indeed does anyone want to sell or give away the whole set.
please let me know
thanks Helie

Helie,
I replied in your other post. I'm the one that wanted to know what a bio flask was. I have pulled out one of these Kipps Apparatus, but I do want to keep it for display. But I do have a lot of distillation stuff to go through, so I will let you know if I come across the bit you need.

A bit of advice for those displaying their Kipps Apparatus. Apparently, the kids think the same thing as Chelties' onlookers, (that they're some sort of bong) and they tend to go missing, so keep them somewhere safe!!
Cheers,
Lisa

Thanks Lyn for identifying my wonderful piece of equipment. I located the funnel to go on top of it and a tap for the side so it has been returned to it's former glory. I tried at school today to attatch a photo of it but failed.

I now have another piece that we dont know what it was used for. We have about 8 around the school. It is a copper oven about 250mm square and comes with a stand.

Even the teacher with 30 years experience had not seen it in use.

Anybody have any ideas?

Wendy

I have one of these too. A teacher once told me it used to be used as a drying oven. There are also sets of copper containers with lids that consist of concentric circles, so you can choose whether the lid covers the whole container or various amounts from the outside. Does that make sense?
Might be worth some money as scrap metal.
Copper is worth heaps at the moment.

Julie

Wendy - I have some of the stands for those ovens!

Julie - sounds like you're talking about copper water baths. We use ours fairly often, but don't have enough of the circles, so can only set up 3 properly. If you have extra rings you don't need, I'd love some!

Hi Liz!

I'll have a look and see what I've got and get back to you on that.

Julie

Hi All..

I have a Kipps apparatus that I have kept since Uni, It has 5 chambers and my head teacher placed a wager, saying that I could not fill all chambers with different gases.... Lets say I had a good weekend over his house for a great BBQ following.

Good to see they are still around.. The scary thing is that these pieces of equi[ment produce gases better then some newer types.

Cheers,

Robb.....

Thanks, Julie - that'd be great!

Man ....don't sell it to scrap - I would be putting that in my house on show. It is fantastc. Maybe I see things a little differently but its is stunning.

Hi Kim

If I put all the charming, beautiful, unusual, but none the less useless bits of apparatus on show there'd be no room in my house for me.

So sometimes the scrap idea is good, because at least it pays well.

Julie