PROCEDURE.--Clean carefully the outside of a weighing-tube, or
weighing-bottle, containing the pure sodium carbonate, taking care
to handle it as little as possible after wiping. Weigh the tube
accurately to 0.0001 gram, and record the weight in the notebook. Hold
the tube over the top of a beaker (200-300 cc.) and cautiously remove
the stopper, making sure that no particles fall from it or from the
tube elsewhere than in the beaker. Pour out from the tube a portion
of the carbonate, replace the stopper and determine approximately how
much has been removed. Continue this procedure until 1.00 to 1.10
grams has been taken from the tube. Then weigh the tube accurately
and record the weight under the first weight in the notebook.
The difference in the two weights is the weight of the carbonate
transferred to the beaker. Proceed in the same way to transfer a
second portion of the carbonate from the tube to another beaker of
about the same size as the first. The beakers should be labeled and
plainly marked to correspond with the entries in the notebook.

Pour over the carbonate in each beaker about 80 cc. of water, stir
until solution is complete, and add two drops of methyl orange
solution. Fill the burettes with the standard acid and alkali
solutions, noting the initial readings of the burettes and temperature
of the solutions. Run in acid from the burette, stirring and avoiding
loss by effervescence, until the solution has become pink. Wash down
the sides of the beaker with a !little! water from a wash-bottle, and
then run in alkali from the other burette until the pink is replaced
by yellow; then finish the titration as described on page 37. Note the
readings of the burettes after the proper interval, and record them in
the notebook. Repeat the procedure, using the second portion of sodium
carbonate. Apply the necessary calibration corrections to the volumes
of the solutions used, and correct for temperature if necessary.