Automatic microanalyzers: I. Automatic introduction device

An automatic introduction device AID which can be used to introduce automatically a sample container made of quartz, silver, aluminum or other material into a pyrolysis or combustion tube is described.This system which consists of two parts, the sample inlet device, made of Pyrex glass, and the collecting tube, made of quartz, is very simple and cheap.Gravity feed is used to introduce the sample containers into the AID; the used containers heap up on the bottom of the collecting tube which has to be changed only when it is full so that it is no longer necessary to withdraw each used container after every single determination.The change of the collecting tube which lasts about 0.25 leaves the microanalyzer in working condition.The AID enabled us to develop several apparatus such as oxygen, carbon-hydrogen and nitrogen microanalyzers with a complete automatic control; they will be described in other papers.