A Textbook of Assaying

A Textbook of Assaying: For the
Use of Those
by Cornelius
Beringer and John Jacob
Beringer

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Connected with Mines., by Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob
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Title: A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with
Mines.
Author: Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer

Release Date: July 3, 2006 [eBook #18751]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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A TEXT-BOOK OF ASSAYING: FOR THE USE OF THOSE
CONNECTED WITH MINES.
by
C. AND J. J. BERINGER.
Revised by
J. J. BERINGER,
Assoc. of the Royal School of Mines; Fellow of the Chemical Society
and of the Inst. of Chemistry; Principal of the Camborne Mining
School; and Late Public Analyst for the County of Cornwall.
With numerous Diagrams and Tables.
Ninth Edition.

London: Charles Griffin and Company, Limited, Exeter Street, Strand.
1904. [All rights reserved.]

PUBLISHER'S NOTE TO THE NINTH EDITION
The continued popularity of the present work, the last edition of which

was published only a little over a year ago, continues to be a source of
gratification to the publishers, who have much pleasure in issuing the
present edition.
January 1904.
PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION
The principal changes in this edition are additions to the articles on
Gold, Cyanides, and Nickel, and a much enlarged Index. The additional
matter covers more than forty pages.
J. J. BERINGER.
CAMBORNE, January 1900.

PREFACE.
The Text-book now offered to the public has been prepared to meet the
existing want of a practical "handy book" for the Assayer.
To mining men the word "assaying" conveys a sufficiently clear
meaning, but it is difficult to define. Some writers limit it to the
determination of silver and gold, and others imagine that it has only to
do with "furnace-work." These limitations are not recognised in
practice. In fact, assaying is becoming wider in its scope, and the
distinction between "assayers" and "analysts" will in time be difficult to
detect. We have endeavoured rather to give what will be of use to the
assayer than to cover the ground within the limits of a faulty definition.
At first our intention was to supply a description of those substances
only which have a commercial value, but on consideration we have
added short accounts of the rarer elements, since they are frequently
met with, and occasionally affect the accuracy of an assay.
Under the more important methods we have given the results of a series
of experiments showing the effect of varying conditions on the

accuracy of the process. Such experiments are often made by assayers,
but seldom recorded. Statements like those generally made--that "this
or that substance interferes"--are insufficient. It is necessary to know
under what conditions and to what extent.
Students learning any particular process cannot do better than repeat
such a series of experiments. By this means they will, at the same time,
acquire the skill necessary for performing an assay and a confidence in
their results based upon work under different conditions.
The electrolytic method of copper assaying given under Copper is a
modification of Luckow's; it was introduced by us into the offices of
the Rio