Freiberg, Germany/freiberg289

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Karl Friedrich Plattner (1800-1858) pioneered quantitative blowpipe assaying. This exhibit shows his equipment. His book (left) is "Die Probierkunst mit dem Lötrohr" (1835) -- "The art of analysis with the Blowpipe." Curiously, Plattner analyzed pollucite and misidentified the element cesium as potassium. He never heard of the alkali metal which two years afer his death was discovered by Bunsen in the mineral waters of Bad Dürkheim. {LINK: to Heidelberg and Bad Dürkheim}