Figure 41. Control Observation Tube.
By this device the length of liquid under observation can be accurately read to a tenth of a millimeter. The cover glass E is held in position by any one of the devices in common use for this purpose in the case in question, by a bayonet fastening. The funnel T, communicating directly with the interior of A, serves to hold the solution, there being always enough of it to fill the tube when D is removed to the maximum distance from C, which is usually a little more than 200 millimeters.
Let the control tube be adjusted to 200 millimeters and filled with a solution of pure sugar, which reads 100 per cent or degrees in a 200 millimeter tube. Since the degree of rotation is, other things being equal, proportional to the length of the column of polarizing solution, it follows that if the tube B be moved inward until the distance between D and C is 100 millimeters, the scale should read 50° or per cent. By adjusting the length of the distance between B and C it is easily seen that every part of the scale can be accurately tested.
The tube should be filled by removing the funnel and closing the orifice with a screw cap which comes with the apparatus. The cap E is then removed and the tube filled in the ordinary manner. This precaution is practiced to avoid carrying air bubbles into the tube when filled directly through the funnel. With a little care, however, this danger may be avoided, or should air bubbles enter they can be easily removed by inclining the tube.
In case the solution used be not strictly pure it may still be employed for testing the scale. Suppose, for instance, that a solution made up in the usual way, has been made from a sample containing only 99.4 per cent of sugar. Then in order to have this solution read 100° on the scale the tube should be set at 201.2 millimeters, according to the formula
| 200 × 100 | = 201.2. | |
| 99.4 |
By a similar calculation the position of the tube for reading any desired degree on the scale can be determined. The importance of controlling all parts of the scale in compensating instruments is emphasized by the fact that a variation of only 0.016 millimeter in the thickness of the compensating wedge will cause a change of one degree in the reading of the instrument.
79. Setting the Polariscope with Quartz Plates.—Pure sugar is not always at the command of the analyst, and it is more convenient practically to adjust the instrument by means of quartz plates, the sugar values of which have been previously tested for the character of the light used. Assuming the homogeneity of a plate of quartz, the degree of deflection which it imparts to a plane of polarized light depends on the quality of the light, the thickness of the plate, and the temperature.
In respect of the quality of light, red polarized rays are least, and violet most deflected. The degree of rotation produced with any ray, at a given temperature, is directly proportional to the thickness of the plate. Temperature affects the rotating power of a quartz plate in a degree highly significant from a scientific point of view and not wholly negligible for practical purposes. The rotating power of a quartz plate increases with the temperature and the variation may be determined by the formula given below:[44]