Field Assay Kit

From 1866 to 1910 all chemistry majors at Lehigh were encouraged to take the more employable AC (Analytical Chemist) degree, not the BS. In the AC program each student needed to purchase a portable assay kit to conduct mineral analyses in remote areas often within the mine itself. Over the years three of these assay kits were returned to the Department as gifts from the descendants of the alumni. One kit, originally used by Charles R. Rauch (AC 1877) was loaned by the department to the Smithsonian Institution where it was on display from 1993 to 2013. The Rauch kit has returned from its two decade visit to Washington and has been placed in University archives. This kit, purchased in 1905 by Joseph C. Heilman (AC 1909), was used to assay the quality of ores from mines in Kansas. Given to the department by a grandson, Joseph C. Lukens, it too has been transferred to University archives for preservation. The handsome box (8.5 x 14 x 4.0 inches) bears Heilman's name on a small brass plate. In two layers the box (shown here) contains more than 50 items used in qualitative and quantitative analyses. A Lehigh research scientist is shown testing the blow-piping components used in elemental chemical analyses of minerals. The blow-piping worked perfectly!