Laboratory technician

“ He dismisses the professors, and lectures, and lecture rooms with four lines. He dwells at more length on the spacious and complete chemical laboratory, furnished for carrying on upon a large scale all the various processes of practical chemistry and chemical analysis and for making new and interesting experiments. He speaks of a director of the laboratory, a chemical operator, and an assistant in the laboratory (a very ingenious German chemist) , who will devote his whole time to the business of it. ”

“ This is an introductory course in the unit operations of chemical engineering, the purpose of which is to introduce the student to the use of large scale chemical equipment.
CH 46 Chemical Engineering.
The class work consists of a study of industrial equipment and processes. Safety work in the chemical industry is given particular emphasis. The laboratory work comprises a study of unit operations and processes. Seminars, which include reports on the laboratory work and articles in the technical literature, are held at regular intervals. ”

“ The physics teacher, enthusiastic over his students and his work, builds machines and testing devices, which the boys and girls use in solving the problems which they bring from their homes. No less close to the life of the place is the chemical laboratory, which offers opportunity for the analysis of soil, the chemistry of fertilizers, experiments in testing food and milk, and a number of other matters pertaining to agriculture and domestic life. ”

“ There is, indeed, little to see that would greatly interest the casual inspector, for in its outward aspects one laboratory is much like another, a seeming hodgepodge of water-tanks, glass jars of specimens, and tables for microscopes. ”

“ A laboratory of steam engineering was established in 1873, a system of shop-work in 1876, a laboratory of applied mechanics in 1881, the germ of a biological laboratory was introduced in 1884, and a laboratory for a course of electrical engineering was instituted in 1883. The last study is treated as dependent on mechanical engineering, and the recognition of laboratory work in mechanics as an essential feature of a proper training in any branch of the engineering profession is considered the last contribution of the Institute to the philosophy of scientific and technical education. ”

“ The chemists of the different divisions belonging to one department have a joint laboratory whence they conduct the various manufactures, their main object being economical production and good yields. Each step of the reaction is continually watched analytically, and thousands upon thousands of experiments are constantly carried out to improve the processes and above all the quality of the manufactured products. These chemists have also charge of the machinery used in their departments, and a scientific engineer acts in conjunction with them. ”

“ A few years ago, in one of the larger, younger and more enterprising universities, a commodious laboratory, well appointed and adequately decorated, was dedicated to one of the branches of biological science. To meet the needs of scientific work such a laboratory requires the services of a corps of experienced and intelligent assistants and caretakers, particularly where the establishment is equipped with modern appliances for heating, ventilation and the like, as was the case in this instance. ”

“ Finally the problems were unscrambled and the laboratory began to run smoothly again. The research projects were reestablished and the work started out anew. Frayed tempers were soothed and the scientists finally got around to trusting each others' results again. The Laboratorians were now carefully but tactfully watched by the junior chemists who, in turn, were spending more time in the laboratories and less in their offices. ”

“ Hence, it comes about that the editor sends men to work with the microscope, in the chemical laboratory, in the pharmaceutical laboratory, in the physiological laboratory, in the anatomical room, in the hospital, in the dispensary, in the tomes of medical literature of every language and of every age. In short, he has these men at work in every field congenial to them, and such that they can reach it. ”

“ The man test laboratory described above provides facilities for obtaining information concerning the efficiency of canisters, facepieces, etc., within very short periods of time, without waiting for the construction of special apparatus required for machine tests. To get satisfactory results from machine tests, a delicate qualitative chemical test for the gas is essential. Man tests can be made when such a qualitative test is not known. Further, man tests can be made with higher concentrations of some gases than is practicable with machines. ”

“ The number of assistants engaged in the work of experimenting has gradually increased. At first only one laboratory-man was employed, but soon a chemical assistant was needed, and then a computer and record-keeper. ”

“ If a teacher remains sterile both in himself and his students he has missed his vocation.
Of importance equal to that of an efficient body of teachers are adequate laboratory facilities both for teaching and research. Medical science has moved beyond that stage when a student could be kept profitably employed with a microscope and a box of slides. With the growth of laboratory methods of diagnosis, more varied and costly apparatus is needed, more space to place it and more laboratory service to guard it. ”

“ Of the many physical laboratories which have arisen in American universities through private munificence since the time when, fifty years ago, Joseph Henry, Barnard, Draper, Andrew White, and other American scientists started the great movement for higher research in science,376 there may be mentioned, as an illustration, the Johns Hopkins physical laboratory, the Jefferson laboratory at Harvard, the Sloan laboratory at Yale, the Fayerweather laboratory at Columbia, or the Ryerson laboratory at the University of Chicago. ”

“ Every instrument of precision used in the laboratory should be a standard of its kind, the best which could be made; otherwise the work of the institution might fall short of the high character intended for it. So also with the chemicals: only the best should be tolerated. ”

“ The minimum data entered in the notebook should be sufficient to enable another chemist to derive the same results as the original worker, with no other source of information. In addition to this minimum data, any other facts appropriate and pertinent to the sample analysis are to be entered. A chemist's notebook is always subject to inspection by his colleagues, supervisors, or inspectors from outside the laboratory. ”

“ Besides a study of the chemistry of the elements and their compounds, the course includes a brief survey of certain of the more important industrial processes, such as the manufacture of the elementary gases, the acids, soda, glass, cement, and metals. The laboratory work is chosen so as to illustrate the current lectures. In order to emphasize the quantitative nature of the science, the student is required to solve a large number of numerical problems based on chemical processes and to do a certain amount of actual quantitative work in the laboratory. ”

“ An appeal to enlightened individuals on this subject can scarcely be made in vain. It is proposed that the instrument and apparatus be erected in the Laboratory of the Royal Institution, where it shall be employed in the advancement of this new department of science. ”

“ It's a good job, don't worry about that, at three times your director's salary."
"What if I quit?"
"Don't be that silly."
"What's the other job?"
"Works Manager at Quercus Mountain on Phobus. Sole boss of the biggest Isotope Works in the Solar System. You'll have 50,000 men under you and have a free hand at starting any kind of laboratory you want."
"No Laboratorians?"
"Right. You can start out from scratch and make the kind of lab you've always dreamed of. Here we're thinking of pushing up Kercheval if it's all right with you, you always rated him highly. ”

“ In this insistence that the chief use of the physical laboratory is instruction in the difficult art of physical measurement, an art difficult on the technical side, because of the patience and manipulative skill required, and difficult on the intellectual side because the comprehension of many measuring instruments is dependent upon advanced theory and considerable analytical power, it has not been forgotten that the laboratory may serve certain other though perhaps minor purposes. ”

“ But if you would see the most wonderful things in this laboratory—or rather, to be quite accurate, I should say, if you would stand in the presence of the most wonderful things—you must go with Professor Ramsay to his own private laboratory, and be introduced to some little test-tubes that stand inverted in cups of mercury decorating a shelf at one end. You would never notice these tubes of your own accord were you to browse ever so long about the room. Even when your attention is called to them you still see nothing remarkable. These are ordinary test-tubes inverted over ordinary mercury. ”

“ Crude materials to prepare pure products should be bought. 2. The Professor shall be assisted by a person well versed in practical chemistry, who shall be expressly engaged to attend the laboratory and assist in the chemical lectures. 3. Operations in the laboratory should be taught. The Institution will derive therefrom honour and profit, and, as far as chemistry is concerned, that one of its chief purposes [Pg 215] will be accomplished—the diffusion of knowledge and the application of science to the improvement of arts and manufactures. ”

“ In a laboratory organized upon this idea, every worker should be assigned to definite, positive duties, the accurate and careful performance of which would eventually be sure to advance exact knowledge. Here there is nothing speculative or doubtful. Here are certain things to be done, which can be done only by men of the most thorough training, equipped with the best appliances. In such a laboratory, chance would have but little place. ”

“ A given course in chemistry or physics may be designed to sum up for the student the vital facts necessary for an intelligent comprehension of common phenomena. With such an aim, it is obvious that only so much laboratory work will be assigned as will give the student a general knowledge of the tools and methods of laboratory work; that the major portion of the work will be divided into occasional lectures, regular book assignments, and extensive applications of knowledge gained to surrounding chemical and physical phenomena. ”

“ For a long time the only chemical laboratories known were the pharmacies, and of course all chemical work was then done by the pharmacists. If any one desired a knowledge of chemistry, his only way to acquire it was to enter a pharmacy, and this whether he desired to practice the art or not. It was not until between the twentieth and thirtieth year of the present century that there existed any laboratory in which a student could acquire a special knowledge of chemistry. ”

“ That this is so may be proved by the fact that whereas formerly it was difficult to keep our students for more than one session, we now find our senior laboratory well stocked with men in their third, fourth, and even fifth years, working at advanced subjects and becoming “chemists” in the highest and best sense of the word. ”

“ In general, these should be arranged much like those in the basal course and the course in organic chemistry. If anything, more time should be put upon the lectures and recitations; certainly more time should be devoted to exercises of this kind than in the course in quantitative analysis, which is best taught in the laboratory. At the same time it would be a mistake to teach physical chemistry without laboratory practice. Indeed, laboratory practice is the very life of physical chemistry, and the more of such work we can have, the better. ”

“ It has been my wish to state in general terms the aims of the laboratory, to make the advance of physical science more readily available for the needs of the nation and then to illustrate the way in which it is intended to attain those aims: I trust I may have shown that the National Physical Laboratory is an institution which may deservedly claim the cordial support of all who are interested in real progress. ”

“ The laboratories are large, intended for several students working together, or small, for individual workers. At the present time, students are pursuing investigations upon the mechanical equivalent of heat and the coefficient of viscosity of a liquid. There are eight or ten of these individual laboratories for single students, each supplied with all needed facilities. Every laboratory room, large or small, is supplied with gas for light and fuel, electricity for light and power, water, compressed air, and vacuum pipes. ”

“ The laboratory building is a fireproof structure of light gray brick and limestone, commanding a beautiful view of the East River and the country beyond. There are laboratories of pathology, bacteriology, chemistry, physiology, pharmacology, experimental medicine and experimental surgery, each of which is under the charge of a member or associate of the institute with a staff of assistants. ”

“ CHAPTER ONE THE PROFESSOR was pottering about his laboratory. He called it a laboratory, this work-room down in New Jersey, where he was peacefully ending his days, but it was not such in the ordinary acceptation of the term. The brightly burning lights shone on no apparatus for distilling evil-smelling gases, no glass retorts, no long lines of bottles. What instruments it disclosed were of a kind more likely to appeal to a sailor than to a chemist, though many of them would probably have seemed odd to both. ”