Being costly, it is much subject to adulteration; but the fraudulent additions may easily be detected by volatilization, which in the case of pure vermilion leaves no residue.
The plus-silver is due to the fact that in assaying the base bullion by cupellation, the silver lost by volatilization and cupel-absorption is neglected.
The furnace used by Henri Moissan in his experiments on reactions at high temperatures, on the fusion and volatilization of refractory materials, and on the formation of carbides, suicides and borides of various metals, consisted, in its simplest form, of two superposed blocks of lime or of limestone with a central cavity cut in the lower block, and with a corresponding but much shallower inverted cavity in the upper block, which thus formed the lid of the furnace.
This method was developed by Hofmann in 1868, who replaced the short tube of Gay-Lussac by an ordinary barometer tube, thus effecting the volatilization in a Torricellian vacuum.
When the volatilization is quite complete, the level is accurately adjusted, and the difference of the levels of the mercury gives the pressure exerted by the vapour.
