598 PROCEEDINGS [Vol. 83 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY ORDINARY MEETING AN Ordinary Meeting of the Society was held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 5th, 1958, in the meeting room of the Chemical Society, ‘Burlington House, London, W.l. The Chair was taken by the President, Dr. J. H. Hamence, M.Sc., F.R.I.C. The following papers were presented and discussed : “Volumetric Analysis of Stannous and Total Tin in Acid-soluble Tin Compounds,” by J. D. Donaldson, B.Sc., and W. Moser, BSc., A.R.I.C. ; “Modification to the Unicaml SP500 Spectrophotometer for Single-beam Recording,” by D. D. Shrewsbury, B.Sc., Grad.1nst.P. ; “0-Dithiols in Analysis. Part VIII. The Use of the Zinc Complex of Toluene-3 : 4-dithiol in the Field Testing of Ores and Minerals,” by R.E. D. Clark, M.A., Ph.D., and C. E. Tamale-Ssali; “Micro-determination of Calcium and Magnesium in Blood Serum and Cerebrospinal Fluid,” by G. Hunter, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S.C. ORDINARY MEETING AN Ordinary Meeting of the Society, organised by the North of England Section, was held at 7.15 p.m. on Thursday, November 6th, 1958, in the Main Building, The University, Oxford Road, Manchester, 13. In the absence through illness of the President, Mr. A. N. Leather, B.Sc., F.R.I.C., Chairman of the North of England Section, introduced Dr. J. Haslam, F.R.I.C., who took the Chair. The following paper was presented and discussed : “The Chemical Examination of Textiles,” by J. M. Bather, M.Sc. The meeting was preceded a t 2.30 p.m. by a, visit to the laboratories of the British Cotton Industry Research Association, Shirley Institute, Didsbury, Manchester.NEW MEMBERS ORDINARY ‘MEMBERS Keith Lawrence Butcher; Edith Margaret Dodson, B.Sc. (Lond.); Gordon L. Evans, A. B. (Cornell) ; Barbara Anne Ferriday, B.Sc. (Liv.) ; Alan Henry Gunn; Stedman David Morrison; William Harold Redmayne, B.Sc. (Lond.) ; Richard Paton Reynolds ; Mervyn Lewis Richard- son, A.C.T. ; Samuel Ernest Terrill, B.Sc., A.R.A.C.I., F.G.A.A., F.G.S. JUNIOR MEMBER John Francis William Smith.Nov., 19581 PROCEEDINGS 599 NORTH - OF ENGLAND SECTION AN Ordinary Meeting of the Section was held a t 2.15 p.m. on Saturday, October 4th, 1958, a t the City Laboratories, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool. The Chair was taken by the Chairman of the Section, Mr. A. N. Leather, B.Sc., F.R.I.C.A discussion on “Laboratory Balances” was opened by J. C. Lunt, BSc., F.R.I.C., and G. F. Hodsman, B.Sc., Ph.D., A.1nst.P. NORTH OF ENGLAND SECTION AKD PHYSICAL METHODS GROUP A JOINT Meeting of the North of England Section and the Physical Methods Group with the Modern Methods of Analysis Group of the Sheffield Metallurgical Association was held a t 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21st, 1958, in the Conference Room of the British Iron and Steel Research Association, Hoyle Street, Sheffield, 3. The Chair was taken by the Chairman of the Modern Methods of Analysis Group, Mr. P. H. Scholes, A. Met., L.I.M. The following papers were presented and discussed: “The Determination of Gases in Metals by the Micro Vacuum Fusion Method,” by E. Booth, BSc.; “The Determination of Oxygen and Hydrogen in Steel,” by C.E. A. Shanahan, R.Sc., F.R.I.C., F.I.M. (see summaries below). The meeting was preceded a t 2 p.m. by a visit to the laboratories of the British Iron and Steel Research Association. THE DETERMIKATIOS OF GASES IN METALS HI’ THE MICRO VACUUM FUSION METHOD MR. E. BOOTH said that the vacuum fusion technique, pioneered by Sloman a t the National Physical Laboratory for the analysis of iron and steel, had been considerably developed in recent years, and had been applied to the analysis of many metals of current metallurgical interest and importance. He gave a brief account of the fundamental basis of the method, referring to important features in apparatus design. This was followed by an account of the application of the method to the determination of oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen in beryllium, titanium, thorium, uranium and zirconium, THE DETERMIXATION OF OXYGEK AND HYDROGEN IN STEEL XR.C. E. A. SHANAHAS gave a brief outline of existing procedures for the determina- tion of oxygen and hydrogen in steel and showed that these methods suffered from several disadvantages when used in steelworks laboratories. The author’s laboratory had recently developed carrier-gas techniques for oxygen and hydrogen determination, and the remainder of the paper was devoted to descriptions of the development work and the finally recommended methods. Oxygen was determined by high-temperature reaction between the steel sample and graphite; the carbon monoxide evolved was oxidised to carbon dioxide, which was absorbed and weighed.Details were presented of the precision and rapidity of the method and their dependence on carrier-gas flow rate. Hydrogen was determined by a low-temperature carrier-gas extraction procedure whereby the hydrogen was evolved and oxidised to water, which was then absorbed in methanol and titrated with Karl Fischer reagent, a dead-stop end-point method being used. The accuracy and precision of the technique had been examined by the introduction of known amounts of hydrogen into the apparatus and by a comparison of hydrogen deter- minations made on steel samples by the present technique and the well known vacuum heating procedure. MIDLANDS SECTION AN Ordinary Meeting of the Section was held a t 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 8th, 1958, in the Technical College, The Butts, Coventry. The Chair was taken by the Chairman of the Section, Dr.R. Belcher, F.R.I.C., F.1nst.F. A discussion on “The Determination of Trace Impurities in Metals” was opened by B. Ragshawe, A.Met., and W. T. Elwell, F.R.I.C.600 TIMMS, KONRATH AND CHIRNSIDE THE DETERMINATION OF [Vol. 83 AN Ordinary Meeting of the Section was held a t 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 14th, 1958, in the Gas Showrooms, Nottingham. The Chair was taken by the Chairman of the Section, Dr. R. Belcher, F.R.I.C., F.1nst.F. A discussion on “The Identification of the New Permitted Food Colours” was opened by P. S. Hall, F.R.I.C. MICROCHEMIS’TRY GROUP THE sixteenth London Discussion Meeting of the Group was held at 6.30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 15th, 1958, in the restaurant room of “The Feathers,” Tudor Street, London, E.C.4. The Chair was taken by Dr. G. F. Hodsman, 13.Sc., A.1nst.P. A discussion on “The Role of the Microchemist in Industry” was opened by C. Whalley, B.Sc., F.R.I.C., and G. Ingram, A.R.I.C. BIOLOGICAL METHODS GROUP AN Ordinary Meeting of the Group was held at 6.30 p.m. on Thursday, October 9th, 1958, in the restaurant room of “The Feathers,” Tudor Street, London, E.C.4. The Chair was taken by the Chairman of the Group, Dr. S. EL Kon, F.R.I.C. A discussion on “Strategy in the Assessment of Disinfectants” was opened by G. Sykes, M.Sc., F.R.I.C.