A few glass rods in short lengths do for stirrers. A little ingenuity is better than much apparatus.
Of reagents, all those to be found in a well-appointed laboratory may occasionally be of service, but the rough and ready prospector can get along fairly well with the following: Carbonate of soda, borax, microcosmic salt, cobalt solution, cyanide of potassium, lead granulated, bone ash, test papers of blue litmus and turmeric, the former for proving the presence of acid in a solution and the latter that of an alkali.
The foregoing are all dry reagents. Among the wet reagents are: Water—clean rainwater—or, better still, distilled water; hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid, nitric acid, ammonia, nitrate of cobalt.
Heating a mineral with carbonate of soda on charcoal is accomplished as follows: The pulverized mineral, intimately mixed with three times its bulk of carbonate of soda, is placed in the cavity on the coal. Tin ore, which is very difficult to reduce, should have a fragment of cyanide of potassium placed upon it after it has been heated for a few seconds, and the flame is then reapplied. A globule of metal should result, and perhaps an incrustation on the coal. The reaction is as follows:
| Metal. | Globule. | Incrustation. |
| Gold. | Yellow, malleable. | None. |
| Silver. | White, malleable. | None. |
| Copper. | Red, malleable. | None. |
| Lead. | White, malleable. | Red when hot, yellow when cold. |
| Bismuth. | White, brittle. | Red when hot, yellow when cold. |
| Zinc. | None. | Yellow when hot, white when cold. |
| Antimony. | White, brittle, fumes. | White. |
A small loop is made at the end of the platinum wire, and it is heated and dipped in borax; heated again, then touched while hot to the powdered mineral and heated once more. The following colors are obtained:
COLOR OF BEAD.
| O.F. | R.F. | Metal. |
| Red or yellow, hot. | Bottle-green. | Iron. |
| Yellow or colorless, cold. | ||
| Blue, hot or cold. | Blue. | Cobalt. |
| Green, hot; blue, cold. | Red. | Copper. |
| Amethyst. | Colorless. | Manganese. |
| Green. | Green. | Chromium. |
| Violet, hot; red-brown, cold. | Gray. | Nickel. |
The substance to be tested is generally powdered and moistened, placed in the cavity and covered or not as circumstances may demand, with a pinch of carbonate of soda or other suitable reagent. The following results may be obtained:
Antimony. Place the mineral in the cavity with a little of carbonate of soda, and blow upon it with the inner or oxidizing flame. This is formed by inserting the blow-pipe an eighth of an inch into the flame and blowing steadily. A white incrustation on the coal, and a brittle button of antimony should be the result.