Stormglass - Crystals Predictors
Once I got an article in the “UT for Skilful Hands” magazine No. 1, 1989, titled “Mysterious Ampoule”, which tells about an unusual old meteorological device - the stormglass (stormglass, camphor glass, weatcher glass, Fitzroy flask, storm flask), made the device according to the proposed recipe, began to study further, some information and his experience, mostly practical, further, and I will share.
There is information that the stormglass was used already in the XVIII century, but the most famous mention is connected with Robert Fitzroy , Beagle captain of the ship, on which Charles Darwin traveled, and the same invention (R. Fitzroy) is often mistakenly attributed. Classic stormglass is a sealed elongated glass vessel filled almost to the top with a transparent liquid with colorless crystals of various shapes. According to the change in appearance, position and height of these crystals it is necessary to judge the weather for the following hours and days. At one time it was used in conjunction with a barometer, and now the stormglass is viewed more as an unusual decoration for interiors, many modern researchers have come to the conclusion that the device does not perform its main function, but research and debate around it is still underway. Even if the stormglass does not react to anything other than temperature, it is still an interesting and beautiful thing that can serve as a decoration. You can, of course, buy ready-made, there are quite a few offers on the network (especially on eBay and AliExpress), but in this case there is no information about how and from what the device was made, as well as the pleasure of the thing made with your own hands.
I give one example of deciphering changes in a stormglass:
Correlation with seismic events.
Correlation with solar activity.
Correlation with the phases of the moon.
Quite a lot of useful information can be found on the forum .
It seems that it can be easier, you just need to make your own stormglass yourself and do simple research, but there are a large number of recipes, and apparently different recipes will work well with one climatic condition and will not work at all in others.
')
A sufficiently long search on the Internet will find a huge number of different mixtures, which differ quite significantly among themselves, and often use archaic or ambiguous units of measurement systems, problems also arise in the process of converting these units into more familiar ones for a modern researcher. Do not forget about the volume and mass percentages, and the change in volume when mixed with water when dealing with ethyl alcohol.
I will give my collection of basic recipes with a recalculation of units of measurement and adaptation to modern realities. Also attached to it is a bonus in the form of an application for calculating the required volumes and masses of components depending on the required volume of the mixture, this calculator also has several other features useful for researchers. According to him wishes and corrections. Unchanged (with rare exceptions) in different formulations, only the qualitative composition is: camphor , the main component, namely, its crystals are observed in the stormglass, is very volatile and has a pronounced peculiar odor; ammonium chloride (ammonia, not to be confused with ammonia!); potassium nitrate (potassium nitrate); ethyl alcohol (ethanol); water.
№1. Recipe from the English encyclopedia "Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts". This recipe is most popular in runet thanks to the magazines "Chemistry and Life" and "UT for Skilled Hands."
2 drams of camphor, 1.5 drams of potassium nitrate, 1 dram of ammonium chloride, 2.25 fl oz of proof alcohol. The mixture is poured into a tube with a length of 12 inches and a diameter of 3/4 inch.
In terms of metric units, if we take the pharmacy drachma and take into account the change in the volume of the alcohol / water mixture (according to the alcohol tables) we get:
7.78 g camphor;
5.83 g of potassium nitrate;
3.89 g of ammonium chloride;
37.54 ml of 96% rectified ethyl alcohol;
28.35 ml of water.
The length of the storm glass is 30.50 cm, diameter 1.90 cm.
№2. Relatively rare recipe from the runet, the source is unknown.
4.40 g camphor;
2.30 g of potassium nitrate;
2.30 g of ammonium chloride;
19.50 ml of alcohol;
16.00 ml of water.
Number 3. This recipe was found on a foreign site , and was originally published in June 1997 in the School Science Review, it is the most common recipe in the foreign segment of the Internet, and also recommended by most researchers.
10.00 g camphor;
2.50 g of potassium nitrate;
2.50 g of ammonium chloride;
40.00 ml of alcohol;
33.00 ml of water.
№4. Formulation from The Druggist's General Receipt Book, by Henry Beasley, 1886:
2.5 drs. camphor;
38 grs. potassium nitrate;
38 grs. ammonium chloride;
9 drs. water;
6 drs. alcohol rectified.
If drs. - pharmacy drachma, and grs. - English gran, then we get the following recipe:
9.72 g camphor;
2.46 g of potassium nitrate;
2.46 g of ammonium chloride;
29.07 ml of rectified alcohol;
35.00 ml of water.
No. 5.1. Formulation from the book Pharmaceutical Formulas by Peter MacEwan, 1908.
1/2 ounce camphor, 1/2 ounce ammonium chloride, 1/2 ounce potassium nitrate, 1 ounce rectified alcohol, 2 ounces of distilled water.
What is in terms of metric units, if you use the mass ounce everywhere:
14.17 g camphor;
14.17 g of ammonium chloride;
14.17 g of potassium nitrate;
35.32 ml of rectified alcohol;
56.70 ml of water.
No. 5.2. Formulation from the book Pharmaceutical Formulas by Peter MacEwan, 1908.
2 drachm camphor, 1/2 drachm potassium nitrate, 1/2 drachm ammonium chloride, 2 ounces of absolute alcohol, 2 ounces of water. The mixture is poured into a glass tube 10 in. Long and with a diameter of 3/4 in.
In terms of metric units, if you use the mass ounce everywhere:
7.78 g camphor;
1.94 g of ammonium chloride;
1.94 g of potassium nitrate;
73.93 ml of rectified alcohol;
53.85 ml of water.
The length of the stormglass is 25.40 cm, diameter 1.90 cm.
# 5.3 Recipe, as the author claims, works well for the climate of Western Australia :
4.20 g camphor;
1.20 g of potassium nitrate;
0.80 g of ammonium chloride;
23.50 ml of distilled water;
23.50 ml of methylated ethyl alcohol (presumably denatured alcohol).
No. 6 Formulation from the Admiral Fitzroys legendäres Sturmglas article:
14.5 g Campher;
2.0 g Kaliumnitrat;
4.0 g Ammoniumchlorid;
9.7 g Wasser;
9.7 g Ethanol.
If we assume that the mass of pure ethanol is given in the formulation:
14.50 g camphor;
2.00 g of potassium nitrate;
4.00 ammonium chloride;
12.65 ml of rectified alcohol;
9.25 g of water.
It is believed that camphor D-isomer works best in the stormglass, it consists of natural camphor, while the pharmacy is a racemic mixture (D and L isomers in equal proportions). Camphor is the most difficult to obtain component, you can search for it from companies selling components for cosmetics, chemical reagents, in pharmacies with prescription departments, quite a few offers for the sale of camphor on eBay (often stated as natural, which is good), in extreme cases select from the pharmaceutical camphor alcohol by adding water according to the method at the end of the article. The very same camphor alcohol from the pharmacy is suitable only when dry camphor is added in addition to the one already in solution, and its composition is not exactly known.
Ammonium chloride is sold in chemical retailers and radio shops. Potassium nitrate is also in chemical stores or in the form of potassium nitrate, in the latter case it is worth cleansing by recrystallization (this is at the end of the article). Distilled water is often in auto shops. Ethyl alcohol can be used as 96% rectified, and 70%, preferably without various additives.
To make a stormglass it is necessary to accurately weigh the salts and camphor, measure the volume of alcohol and water. For weighing, you can use Chinese jewelry scales with an accuracy of 0.01 g. You can measure the volumes with a measuring cylinder or a measuring tube, as well as weighing liquids, taking into account their density.
You can immediately add camphor to the container prepared for the device and pour it with alcohol, you can also dissolve it in 2/3 of the calculated volume of alcohol, transfer the solution to the container for the storm glass and wash it off with the remaining alcohol. Then, dissolve the salts in water and pour the resulting salt solution to the camphor solution and mix thoroughly (you can simply close the stopper and turn it over several times or shake), some air should remain between the solution and the bottom of the stopper. In this case, camphor will fall in the form of a white precipitate, which indicates the correctness of the action.
Then close the device with a stopper, let all bubbles float up, open momentarily to equalize the pressure, close and apply sealant, remove to cold.
Ready stormglass need to be fixed in a vertical position on a black matte background and placed near the window, but away from heating systems and other heating devices. After about a week, the precipitate of camphor will condense and separate crystals will appear.
In popular sources, there are often erroneous and even harmful recommendations or important points are missed, I will list some of them:
It is impossible to close the storm glass with a rubber stopper, this will inevitably lead to yellowing of the mixture, and the longer the time passes, the more saturated the color will be. Ideally, a vessel with a mixture of soldering can be used; if it is impossible to seal, a ground glass stopper can be used without lubrication, or a fluoroplastic / polyethylene cork (somewhat worse), the cork should ensure absolute tightness of the vessel, it is convenient to produce the final fixation with epoxy resin, causing it to thicken on top of the cork .
Salts need to be dissolved in water, and camphor in alcohol, it is not necessary to heat the solutions, it will only create unnecessary problems with subsequent sealing and volatile components of the mixture. It is important that the place of contact between the cork and the surface of the vessel is dry, otherwise under the influence of the internal pressure of the vapors of alcohol and camphor the liquid will leak out and prevent the sealant from adhering to the surface. After applying the sealant, the stormglass is good to put in a cold for a few hours, in a fridge or on a balcony during the cold season.
After mixing the aqueous solution of salts and the alcohol solution of camphor for some time, the gases dissolved in the water are released, close the device with an airtight plug, allow all bubbles to float and equalize the pressure with atmospheric before final sealing.
The vessel should be made of thin transparent glass, the best form is elongated (like a wide test tube), so optimal conditions are created for observations and the formation of various crystals.
From left to right: recipes 1, 2, 3, 4
The very first I had produced a stormglass according to the recipe No. 1, and in it, initially only in the summer (apparently under the influence of elevated temperature), and then all the year round there is a splitting of the fluid that exists in the instruments and other people who made the stormglass according to this recipe when a layer of oily liquid is observed at the top of the solution. When shaken, it dissolves and after some time appears again.
Later, several experimental stormglasses were manufactured with formulations No. 2, 3, 4, 5.1. In No. 5.1, a lot of camphor was deposited, which floated on the surface of the solution and did not sink to the bottom, it was excluded from the observations, this can be explained by the high density of the solution (the calculator allows you to calculate it approximately). Apparently, the density of the solution should be very close to the density of camphor (0.99 g / ml), but by no means significantly higher than it. In the course of further observations, No. 1 did not react at all to the change in the weather, No. 2 reacted to the deterioration, and to the improvement rather noticeably, No. 3 reacted most actively, No. 4 did not significantly. Here you can see one of the reasons why some researchers believe that the device does not react to anything other than a change in temperature, because recipe number one is the most popular, I don’t think it is completely wrong, the alcohol concentration was probably incorrectly determined The composition is not suitable for our climate, or for use in indoor conditions.
In my opinion, the stormglass is a very interesting device, and what's important, it is quite simple to make and look spectacular. Practically an ideal object to study for schoolchildren and students, and there is something to study, the influence of factors (especially with the possibility of temperature control and automatic registration), research and the search for optimal formulations, the influence of camphor isomers, the possibility of replacing the mixture components with others, etc.
There is information that the stormglass was used already in the XVIII century, but the most famous mention is connected with Robert Fitzroy , Beagle captain of the ship, on which Charles Darwin traveled, and the same invention (R. Fitzroy) is often mistakenly attributed. Classic stormglass is a sealed elongated glass vessel filled almost to the top with a transparent liquid with colorless crystals of various shapes. According to the change in appearance, position and height of these crystals it is necessary to judge the weather for the following hours and days. At one time it was used in conjunction with a barometer, and now the stormglass is viewed more as an unusual decoration for interiors, many modern researchers have come to the conclusion that the device does not perform its main function, but research and debate around it is still underway. Even if the stormglass does not react to anything other than temperature, it is still an interesting and beautiful thing that can serve as a decoration. You can, of course, buy ready-made, there are quite a few offers on the network (especially on eBay and AliExpress), but in this case there is no information about how and from what the device was made, as well as the pleasure of the thing made with your own hands.
I give one example of deciphering changes in a stormglass:
Clear liquid portends clear weather, muddy - rain.Moreover, the device is usually located in the living room or in the cabin of the ship and is absolutely sealed, however, there is also information about the need to install it outside the window or on the mast of the ship, as well as the need for a small hole in the traffic jam. But given the high sensitivity of the device to changes in temperature and extreme volatility to sweep away alcohol and camphor, this seems doubtful. Consequently, the mixture should not be affected by a change in atmospheric pressure, while temperature fluctuations are rather smoothed and are in a narrow range of room temperature, and their amplitude is small, and their character may differ from what is happening outside the window. Moreover, according to some data, even temperature control does not deprive the device of working capacity. There are hypotheses that, in addition to temperature, the storm glass glass is influenced by the intensity of the electric and magnetic fields of the Earth, lightning discharges, solar and lunar activities, infrasonic oscillations, and in the case of temperature, the decisive factor is not absolute values, but the dynamics of its change. These hypotheses are periodically proved by some authors and are refuted by others, several examples of works on this topic:
Turbid liquid with small asterisks is a thunderstorm.
Small dots - fog, wet weather.
Large flakes, for winter - snow, in summer - covered sky, heavy air.
The threads at the top of the fluid are wind.
The crystals on the bottom - thick air, frost.
Small stars - in winter in clear weather - snow on another or third day.
The higher the crystals rise in winter, the more severe the cold will be.
Correlation with seismic events.
Correlation with solar activity.
Correlation with the phases of the moon.
Quite a lot of useful information can be found on the forum .
It seems that it can be easier, you just need to make your own stormglass yourself and do simple research, but there are a large number of recipes, and apparently different recipes will work well with one climatic condition and will not work at all in others.
')
Recipes
A sufficiently long search on the Internet will find a huge number of different mixtures, which differ quite significantly among themselves, and often use archaic or ambiguous units of measurement systems, problems also arise in the process of converting these units into more familiar ones for a modern researcher. Do not forget about the volume and mass percentages, and the change in volume when mixed with water when dealing with ethyl alcohol.
I will give my collection of basic recipes with a recalculation of units of measurement and adaptation to modern realities. Also attached to it is a bonus in the form of an application for calculating the required volumes and masses of components depending on the required volume of the mixture, this calculator also has several other features useful for researchers. According to him wishes and corrections. Unchanged (with rare exceptions) in different formulations, only the qualitative composition is: camphor , the main component, namely, its crystals are observed in the stormglass, is very volatile and has a pronounced peculiar odor; ammonium chloride (ammonia, not to be confused with ammonia!); potassium nitrate (potassium nitrate); ethyl alcohol (ethanol); water.
№1. Recipe from the English encyclopedia "Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts". This recipe is most popular in runet thanks to the magazines "Chemistry and Life" and "UT for Skilled Hands."
2 drams of camphor, 1.5 drams of potassium nitrate, 1 dram of ammonium chloride, 2.25 fl oz of proof alcohol. The mixture is poured into a tube with a length of 12 inches and a diameter of 3/4 inch.
In terms of metric units, if we take the pharmacy drachma and take into account the change in the volume of the alcohol / water mixture (according to the alcohol tables) we get:
7.78 g camphor;
5.83 g of potassium nitrate;
3.89 g of ammonium chloride;
37.54 ml of 96% rectified ethyl alcohol;
28.35 ml of water.
The length of the storm glass is 30.50 cm, diameter 1.90 cm.
№2. Relatively rare recipe from the runet, the source is unknown.
4.40 g camphor;
2.30 g of potassium nitrate;
2.30 g of ammonium chloride;
19.50 ml of alcohol;
16.00 ml of water.
Number 3. This recipe was found on a foreign site , and was originally published in June 1997 in the School Science Review, it is the most common recipe in the foreign segment of the Internet, and also recommended by most researchers.
10.00 g camphor;
2.50 g of potassium nitrate;
2.50 g of ammonium chloride;
40.00 ml of alcohol;
33.00 ml of water.
№4. Formulation from The Druggist's General Receipt Book, by Henry Beasley, 1886:
2.5 drs. camphor;
38 grs. potassium nitrate;
38 grs. ammonium chloride;
9 drs. water;
6 drs. alcohol rectified.
If drs. - pharmacy drachma, and grs. - English gran, then we get the following recipe:
9.72 g camphor;
2.46 g of potassium nitrate;
2.46 g of ammonium chloride;
29.07 ml of rectified alcohol;
35.00 ml of water.
No. 5.1. Formulation from the book Pharmaceutical Formulas by Peter MacEwan, 1908.
1/2 ounce camphor, 1/2 ounce ammonium chloride, 1/2 ounce potassium nitrate, 1 ounce rectified alcohol, 2 ounces of distilled water.
What is in terms of metric units, if you use the mass ounce everywhere:
14.17 g camphor;
14.17 g of ammonium chloride;
14.17 g of potassium nitrate;
35.32 ml of rectified alcohol;
56.70 ml of water.
No. 5.2. Formulation from the book Pharmaceutical Formulas by Peter MacEwan, 1908.
2 drachm camphor, 1/2 drachm potassium nitrate, 1/2 drachm ammonium chloride, 2 ounces of absolute alcohol, 2 ounces of water. The mixture is poured into a glass tube 10 in. Long and with a diameter of 3/4 in.
In terms of metric units, if you use the mass ounce everywhere:
7.78 g camphor;
1.94 g of ammonium chloride;
1.94 g of potassium nitrate;
73.93 ml of rectified alcohol;
53.85 ml of water.
The length of the stormglass is 25.40 cm, diameter 1.90 cm.
# 5.3 Recipe, as the author claims, works well for the climate of Western Australia :
4.20 g camphor;
1.20 g of potassium nitrate;
0.80 g of ammonium chloride;
23.50 ml of distilled water;
23.50 ml of methylated ethyl alcohol (presumably denatured alcohol).
No. 6 Formulation from the Admiral Fitzroys legendäres Sturmglas article:
14.5 g Campher;
2.0 g Kaliumnitrat;
4.0 g Ammoniumchlorid;
9.7 g Wasser;
9.7 g Ethanol.
If we assume that the mass of pure ethanol is given in the formulation:
14.50 g camphor;
2.00 g of potassium nitrate;
4.00 ammonium chloride;
12.65 ml of rectified alcohol;
9.25 g of water.
It is believed that camphor D-isomer works best in the stormglass, it consists of natural camphor, while the pharmacy is a racemic mixture (D and L isomers in equal proportions). Camphor is the most difficult to obtain component, you can search for it from companies selling components for cosmetics, chemical reagents, in pharmacies with prescription departments, quite a few offers for the sale of camphor on eBay (often stated as natural, which is good), in extreme cases select from the pharmaceutical camphor alcohol by adding water according to the method at the end of the article. The very same camphor alcohol from the pharmacy is suitable only when dry camphor is added in addition to the one already in solution, and its composition is not exactly known.
Ammonium chloride is sold in chemical retailers and radio shops. Potassium nitrate is also in chemical stores or in the form of potassium nitrate, in the latter case it is worth cleansing by recrystallization (this is at the end of the article). Distilled water is often in auto shops. Ethyl alcohol can be used as 96% rectified, and 70%, preferably without various additives.
Manufacturing
To make a stormglass it is necessary to accurately weigh the salts and camphor, measure the volume of alcohol and water. For weighing, you can use Chinese jewelry scales with an accuracy of 0.01 g. You can measure the volumes with a measuring cylinder or a measuring tube, as well as weighing liquids, taking into account their density.
You can immediately add camphor to the container prepared for the device and pour it with alcohol, you can also dissolve it in 2/3 of the calculated volume of alcohol, transfer the solution to the container for the storm glass and wash it off with the remaining alcohol. Then, dissolve the salts in water and pour the resulting salt solution to the camphor solution and mix thoroughly (you can simply close the stopper and turn it over several times or shake), some air should remain between the solution and the bottom of the stopper. In this case, camphor will fall in the form of a white precipitate, which indicates the correctness of the action.
Then close the device with a stopper, let all bubbles float up, open momentarily to equalize the pressure, close and apply sealant, remove to cold.
Ready stormglass need to be fixed in a vertical position on a black matte background and placed near the window, but away from heating systems and other heating devices. After about a week, the precipitate of camphor will condense and separate crystals will appear.
In popular sources, there are often erroneous and even harmful recommendations or important points are missed, I will list some of them:
It is impossible to close the storm glass with a rubber stopper, this will inevitably lead to yellowing of the mixture, and the longer the time passes, the more saturated the color will be. Ideally, a vessel with a mixture of soldering can be used; if it is impossible to seal, a ground glass stopper can be used without lubrication, or a fluoroplastic / polyethylene cork (somewhat worse), the cork should ensure absolute tightness of the vessel, it is convenient to produce the final fixation with epoxy resin, causing it to thicken on top of the cork .
Salts need to be dissolved in water, and camphor in alcohol, it is not necessary to heat the solutions, it will only create unnecessary problems with subsequent sealing and volatile components of the mixture. It is important that the place of contact between the cork and the surface of the vessel is dry, otherwise under the influence of the internal pressure of the vapors of alcohol and camphor the liquid will leak out and prevent the sealant from adhering to the surface. After applying the sealant, the stormglass is good to put in a cold for a few hours, in a fridge or on a balcony during the cold season.
After mixing the aqueous solution of salts and the alcohol solution of camphor for some time, the gases dissolved in the water are released, close the device with an airtight plug, allow all bubbles to float and equalize the pressure with atmospheric before final sealing.
The vessel should be made of thin transparent glass, the best form is elongated (like a wide test tube), so optimal conditions are created for observations and the formation of various crystals.
Some information on recipes I have tested.
From left to right: recipes 1, 2, 3, 4
The very first I had produced a stormglass according to the recipe No. 1, and in it, initially only in the summer (apparently under the influence of elevated temperature), and then all the year round there is a splitting of the fluid that exists in the instruments and other people who made the stormglass according to this recipe when a layer of oily liquid is observed at the top of the solution. When shaken, it dissolves and after some time appears again.
Later, several experimental stormglasses were manufactured with formulations No. 2, 3, 4, 5.1. In No. 5.1, a lot of camphor was deposited, which floated on the surface of the solution and did not sink to the bottom, it was excluded from the observations, this can be explained by the high density of the solution (the calculator allows you to calculate it approximately). Apparently, the density of the solution should be very close to the density of camphor (0.99 g / ml), but by no means significantly higher than it. In the course of further observations, No. 1 did not react at all to the change in the weather, No. 2 reacted to the deterioration, and to the improvement rather noticeably, No. 3 reacted most actively, No. 4 did not significantly. Here you can see one of the reasons why some researchers believe that the device does not react to anything other than a change in temperature, because recipe number one is the most popular, I don’t think it is completely wrong, the alcohol concentration was probably incorrectly determined The composition is not suitable for our climate, or for use in indoor conditions.
In my opinion, the stormglass is a very interesting device, and what's important, it is quite simple to make and look spectacular. Practically an ideal object to study for schoolchildren and students, and there is something to study, the influence of factors (especially with the possibility of temperature control and automatic registration), research and the search for optimal formulations, the influence of camphor isomers, the possibility of replacing the mixture components with others, etc.
The selection of camphor from the pharmaceutical 10% alcohol solution.
Camphor is very poorly soluble in water (~ 0.12 g per 100 g of water), therefore, if you add enough water to camphor alcohol, the camphor will almost completely stand out in solid form.
To do this, pour a few jars of pharmacy camphor alcohol into a large glass with a tight lid and add water in a thin stream in several portions until camphor floats to the surface, i.e. the solution becomes heavier than camphor, then add some more water. Next, you need to give the camphor seal and settle for an hour, then it can be filtered or decanted (drained), and squeezed well. In the resulting mass there is still a lot of water and the subsequent drying will take a lot of time. Therefore, camphor should be transferred to a small container with a tight lid, and periodically mix the mass draining the released water.
When the water ceases to stand out, you can start drying. Camphor is very volatile and it can be dried, and then it can be stored only in an airtight container. You need to dry over calcined calcium chloride or calcined silica gel, or any other desiccant . To do this, place a small cup with a damp camphor in a larger glass with a desiccant poured on the bottom. Periodically, a large glass should be opened for mixing and evaluation of camphor moisture. Dry until camphor is no longer wet to the touch.
To do this, pour a few jars of pharmacy camphor alcohol into a large glass with a tight lid and add water in a thin stream in several portions until camphor floats to the surface, i.e. the solution becomes heavier than camphor, then add some more water. Next, you need to give the camphor seal and settle for an hour, then it can be filtered or decanted (drained), and squeezed well. In the resulting mass there is still a lot of water and the subsequent drying will take a lot of time. Therefore, camphor should be transferred to a small container with a tight lid, and periodically mix the mass draining the released water.
When the water ceases to stand out, you can start drying. Camphor is very volatile and it can be dried, and then it can be stored only in an airtight container. You need to dry over calcined calcium chloride or calcined silica gel, or any other desiccant . To do this, place a small cup with a damp camphor in a larger glass with a desiccant poured on the bottom. Periodically, a large glass should be opened for mixing and evaluation of camphor moisture. Dry until camphor is no longer wet to the touch.
Purification of salts by recrystallization.
For the purification of contaminated salts, for example, potassium nitrate in the form of fertilizer, it is necessary to carry out a recrystallization process, possibly more than once. To do this, polluted salt is added to the hot water while continuing to heat until it no longer dissolves, you can also add some activated carbon powder, then the solution is quickly filtered. There can be problems in the absence of a heated funnel, crystallization can start right in the funnel, to avoid this, the solution can be heated up to 10 degrees higher than the temperature at which the solution is saturated, preheat the funnel and filter as quickly as possible through a small piece of cotton wool or other porous material available. In extreme cases, the solution can be allowed to settle, without stopping the heating. The resulting filtrate (purified solution after filtration) is cooled, the crystals are filtered and dried.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/448364/
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