A weight buret is more accurate and more precise than a volumetric buret and requires less skill in titrimetry. A plastic squeeze bottle is cheaper and more robust than a glass volumetric buret. Students using squeeze-bottle burets for titrimetry obtained 0.1% accuracy (1), which is better than the 0.3% that good students can achieve volumetrically. Indeed, weight burets were used for specially accurate work long ago when their use was prohibitively inconvenient (3). Unlike volumetric titrimetry, training is not needed in proper drainage and cleanliness or in reading the meniscus or in the choice of Class A or B buret. The titrant is calibrated in mol/kg so the effect of temperature on w/v concentration is irrelevant. Concentrated titrants can be used without their traditional errors. Modern weighing technology would make automation straightforward.

The published projects were done in academic labs. It is reasonable to suppose that industrial labs would also welcome the savings and convenience and increased reliability of squeeze-bottle burets. Improvements in technique are usually expensive, but this is cheap. It is time to resuscitate the weight buret.

Literature Cited

1. Butler, Eliot A.; Swift, Ernest H. J. Chem. Educ. 1972, 49, 425–427.
2. Armstrong, Alfred R. Va. J. Sci. 1969, 20, 58–59.
3. Kolthoff, I. M.; Sandell, E. B.; Meehan, E. J.; Bruckenstein, S. Quantitative Chemical Analysis, 4th ed.; Macmillan: London, 1969, p 560.

See the next Letter of support.