Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - ISGS New Mineral Lab [PAGE 12]

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brines, etc., extraction and analysis of oils, analysis of gases by the Shepherd modification of the Orsat equipment, and analysis of gases, particularly natural gas, by low temperature fractionation with the Podbielniak equipment. The fuels laboratory is equipped with suitable equipment for fundamental chemical studies in regard to the composition and constitution of coal, oil and gas. The non-fuels laboratory has equipment suitable for physicochemical studies on the non-fuel minerals. The high temperature laboratory contains gas and electric furnaces for the use of the analytical and research laboratories and an electric pyrometer which is connected through a multiple point switch to thermocouples from each furnace where temperature control is desired. Provision is made for equipment for fundamental studies on problems of industrial application of research results, in the industrial research laboratory. The University of Illinois, in its Department of Chemistry, will cooperate in the use of its X-ray equipment on problems requiring X-ray photographs. Laboratory of Coal Microscopy*—This laboratory of the Coal Division is equipped to obtain complete columnar samples of the coal beds, to prepare polished sections and thin sections, to examine these under high-power microscopes, and to photograph thin sections on a magnification as high as approximately iooo diameters. In t^iis laboratory is also studied the maceration products of coal, as a part of the study of the constitution of coal. Non-Fuels Laboratories.—The non-fuels laboratories are equipped in themselves, or with the cooperation of the State Highway Division and the Department of Ceramic Engineering of the University of Illinois, to undertake the wide variety of physical tests and studies necessary to accurately determine the physical composition and properties of the state's non-fuel minerals. Modern laboratory crushing and drying machinery for preparing earth materials for study are provided as well as microscopes for the examination of these materials and their commercial products. Laboratory of Sedimentary Petrography.—This laboratory is equipped for the making of thin sections of unconsolidated materials, as well as consolidated, for the separation of heavy minerals, and for the microscopic determination of mineral and rock constituents.

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