The Vespiary

The Hive => Chemicals & Equipment => Topic started by: moo on August 12, 2004, 01:10:00 AM

Title: Wurtz flask
Post by: moo on August 12, 2004, 01:10:00 AM
What kind of a flask exactly is a Wurtz flask?

Title: "Wurtz flask"
Post by: ozmosis on August 12, 2004, 03:46:00 PM
The "head" of a fractional still is more complicated. The flask neck is short and wide to accommodate a fractional column, often called a bubble tower. Their purpose is that the higher B.P. fractions do not pass over, but condense and drain back into the flask. The vapour thermometer is inserted into the top most tower stopper, below which a glass tube exits on a downward angle to the condenser. There are three main forms: Wurtz, Linnemann, and Hempel. Wurtz has several ascending simple glass bubbles, and condensation occurs on upper surfaces of the bubbles. Linnemann has small platinum screens between the bubbles and is more efficient but can be a bastard to clean. Hempel has a simple neck rising through the flask stopper, then widening to the appearance of a fat test tube with a condenser side stem. This column is packed with glass beads, and the top-most stopper carries the vapour thermometer. In my homemade version I use white glass beads about the size of pearls. The Hempel is simple and best suited to serious production of distillate. It is necessary to slack off on the heat from time to time to allow the bubbles or beads to drain themselves back into the flask.
;)
Title: Thanks but...
Post by: moo on August 12, 2004, 04:46:00 PM
You can find all that by using Google and then paste it here. It doesn't say a word about a Wurtz flask, it does mention a distillation column that goes by that name.

It might be that a Wurtz flask is a distillation flask with a Wurtz column but I doubt it. Two places where such a flask is used are

Post 355342 (https://www.thevespiary.org/talk/index.php?topic=11256.msg35534200#msg35534200)

(Antoncho: "Zealot: a complete synthesis of ketamine.", Novel Discourse)
and the article in

Post 522924 (https://www.thevespiary.org/talk/index.php?topic=9628.msg52292400#msg52292400)

(lugh: "Very Good Leuckart Article", Methods Discourse)
and neither of them appears like something that needed a column. Both of them are also Russian so it might be that the term isn't much used in western countries. My guess is that it is an ordinary distillation flask that has a long neck which has a descending sidearm, the type used already before ground glass joints. But does anyone know?

Title: Russian Connection?
Post by: methyl_ethyl on August 13, 2004, 02:57:00 AM
I think this is very much Russian Terminology.  I think the question would be answered immediately if asked in the Hyperlab.  Almost all of the References I have seen regarding "Wurst Flasks" have had a definitive Russian "flare" to them.  Maybe Antoncho would have a link to an image of such a piece of glassware.

EDIT: ADHD rearing it's lovely head: Both of them are also Russian so it might be that the term isn't much used in western countries. My guess is that it is an ordinary distillation flask that has a long neck which has a descending sidearm, the type used already before ground glass joints. But does anyone know?

I did not fully read your post before I responded, I apologize for my ADHD like behaviours.

regards,

methyl_ethyl

Title: spelling
Post by: hypo on August 13, 2004, 09:57:00 AM
> "Wurst Flasks"

wurtz = chemist
wurst = sausage

usually i don't complain about spelling errors, be it PH or HCL, but
sausage flask is....insulting. ( ;) )

Title: Idiot
Post by: methyl_ethyl on August 14, 2004, 04:13:00 AM
usually i don't complain about spelling errors, be it PH or HCL, but sausage flask is....insulting

I could not agree more, and I apologize, it is not like myself to make such an ignorant spelling error.  I wish I could say that I was hungry and the only thing on my mind was "wurst", however that was not the case.  To tell the truth I have no excuse for such a silly mistake.

my deepest apologies,


m_e