EDITORIAL. 
A NEW TYPE OF LABORATORY CONDENSER FOR USE WITH 
VOLATILE LIQUIDS IN TROPICAL LABORATORIES. 
During the course of some recent work on copra, in which 
it was desirable to obtain the oil by continuous extraction with 
ether, difficulty was experienced in obtaining efficient conden- 
sation of the ether vapor in the extractor. The apparatus em- 
ployed was an ordinary Soxhlet extractor, having ground-glass 
joints, and fitted with a 4-bulb glass single-surface condenser. 
The source of heat was a 32-candlepower electric bulb placed 
below the extractor flask. 
When the apparatus was allowed to run in the usual way, a 
considerable loss of ether was experienced. Even when water 
at the usual temperature of 30° was flowing through the con- 
denser at the rate of 4,000 cubic centimeters per minute, the 
loss frequently amounted to 100 cubic centimeters per hour. 
Apart from the question of cost, such an escape of ether vapor 
was liable to cause fire or explosion in the vicinity of the 
extractor. 
The particular problem to which reference has been made 
above; namely, of estimating oil in copra, might easily have been 
solved by employing a less volatile solvent, such as chloroform, 
but for the fact that it was very desirable to obtain figures 
comparable with others previously obtained, using ether as the 
solvent. With this object in view, a new type of laboratory con- 
denser was designed for either the distillation or refluxing of 
volatile liquids. It depends upon the absorption of heat ob- 
tained by rapidly evaporating a liquid by means of an air blast. 
The adjoining diagram shows a vertical section of the condenser 
of approximately one-third scale. 
The apparatus is constructed almost entirely of metal, the inner 
condensing surface being made of thin copper, the remainder of 
brass. The inner tube is enlarged into 3 circular chambers, 
divided into an upper and a lower portion by means of a disk 
of copper. The latter is provided with 4 apertures near the 
circumference, so that vapor can pass from the lower portion 
of the chamber to the upper. The space between the inner tube 
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