[limpet chicken]

I just bought some glassware on ebay, as I needed something for a quick distillation of a few hundred ml or so of 1,4-butanediol, as I am experimenting with the hydrogenation of maleic anhydride to yield 1,4-BDO.

I bought the cheapest flask I could, but it looks strange, like it was custom made for something, its not graduated or marked off I don't think, and has a pear/teardrop shaped round bottom, with a very long thin neck.

See the picture below, I would bee grateful if someone could tell me what the flask was actually intended for.

[hmx9123]

It's amusing the amount of useless names you learn working for a glassblower.  It's a Kjedahl flask.  It is probably used for solutions--the long neck makes it easier to swirl around.  You can check out google to see if there is some actual purpose behind it, though.

[limpet chicken]

Interesting, HMX, have you ever done any glass blowing yourself? I have often considered giving it a try, for making custom bits of glassware and the like.

Apparently, a Kjeldahl flask is used for determintation of nitrogen content in a proteine containing sample, I am buying it off ebay, its only costing me £0.99, which is actually cheaper than the shipping price, not bad for pyrex, it just happens to be pretty well suited for the distillation of the 1,4-BDO I am experimenting with, as the neck is narrow enough to plug with clay and glass tubing, as the 1,4-BDO would probably attack rubber or plastic stoppers and be unsuitable for my experiments.

Ebay really is the best, for the amateur chemist, theres almost nothing you can't buy there, the only things I have EVER failed to find, are concentrated liquid acids, pyridine, and LiAlH4, everything else, they got it

[hmx9123]

Yes, I've done some glassblowing, although at a very basic level.  It's a lot harder than it looks.  On top of that you need an annealing oven, too.  Not cheap.

E-bay usually has some excellent deals on glassware.  I usually search under the phrase "lab glass".  Beakers, flasks, etc. are very cheap.  Some of the condensers aren't bad either, but occasionally one item or another will go for some ridiculous amount of money.

Huh.  Never knew that about the Kjedahls before.  Kinda interesting.  I wonder what about the shape makes it useful for nitrogen determination.  I do a whole different kind of nitrogen determination.