Abstract
FIFTEEN years age Prof. J. Heyrovský, of the Charles University of Prague, described a polarographic apparatus with the dropping mercury cathode which he used for showing the presence of certain metals in solution by the position of ‘waves’ produced in the deposition potential curves automatically recorded as ‘polarograms’. Since that time, Heyrovsky and his co-workers have carried out many academic physico-chemical researches with the polarograph, and in recent years it was beginning to find application for other purposes in pure and applied science, ranging from its use in examining sera for the diagnosis of cancer (NATURE, 142, 316; 1938) to, say, the estimation of iodine in Chile saltpetre. The genuine apparatus has hitherto been difficult to obtain, since it was only made in Czechoslovakia, and research workers and others will be interested to learn that although instruments are no longer obtainable from Czechoslovakia, an improved model, complete with self-contained recording equipment, of British design, is now being manufactured by the Cambridge Instrument Co., Ltd.; it is anticipated that the polarograph will find still wider uses in the near future, especially in analytical and electrochemical work.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The Polarograph. Nature 144, 904–905 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144904e0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144904e0