OBJECT SLIDES 
149 
blow or two with a hammer, hied to a double chisel edge and 
polished, thus giving an instrument useful in breaking up small 
fragments of soft salts, or in loosening reagents in the set of vials 
referred to above. 
Forceps. — For picking up tiny fragments of dry material, 
handling cover glasses, small watch glasses, etc., forceps (Fig. 
83) with hne curved tips are indispensable. The corrugations 
usually found on the points should be carefully hied away until 
the tips are almost smooth. 
When deliquescent or corrosive materials are to be handled 
the forceps should be provided with solid platinum tips. Fig. 84. 
No microchemical outht can be considered as complete without 
platinum tipped forceps. Just as in the case above cited the 
roughening at‘the tips should be carefully removed and at least 
Fig. 84. Forceps with Platinum Tips. (Full size.) 
one of the tips also hied hat and smooth on the outside, thus al¬ 
lowing the tip to be used as a tiny spatula. Tips should be 
sufficiently stiff and rigid to permit holding fragments hrmly to 
obviate all danger of dropping material or bending the tips. 
Foil-like tips are for this reason an abomination since the slightest 
excess of pressure causes them to bend and loosen. 
Object Slides and Other Supports, — Object slides or slips 
employed in microchemical analysis should be from i to 1.5 
millimeters thick and made from glass of such composition as to 
be as resistant as possible to the action of solvents. The color¬ 
less glass object slides in common use in America, so excellent 
for ordinary microscopic work, are easily attacked by all the 
usual solvents and reagents employed in qualitative analysis. 
