“Will do, sir, and thank you for the advice.”

Three days later, Chalmers returned with the needed spectra.  There was a modest line for using the departmental spectroscopy facility, the technician in charge of the unit had been out of town for a day, instruction on using the instrument had to be scheduled, but finally Chalmers had his spectra, spread over short rolls of photographic film.

“I see that you’ve been very busy,” Watership said.  “Your course grades were outstanding.  The regular samples that came in were analysed, you have set up to recover more of the trace metals from the Heath samples, and now with spectra you can tell us what was present in the orange sand. “

“I wish I could,” Chalmers answered. “Professor Hildebrand said the ebullioscope readings were mysterious, just as you said, and the spectra don’t match the standard table, either as a single element or as a combination of some sort. So I took another small sample to the mass spectroscopy lab.  We’re the only school on the west coast to have one.  I’m not allowed to touch the system – too fragile – so I get to wait for an assistant to run the machine.”

“Good initiative,” Watership said.  “The Department Library has a larger spectral table, spectra of elements and complex ions. Have you tried that one yet?”

“No, sir.”  Chalmers grimaced. He’d looked unsuccessfully for better tables.  “Actually, I missed that we had a larger table.  I’ll try that tomorrow; library is about to close for today.”

“Let me offer a suggestion,” Watership said.  “Make a table.  A column listing all the elements in order.  Blanks for the elements no one has seen. A column for each of your crystals.  Work through, one element at a time.  Systematic means you won’t forget to check an element.  Note known lines that are close but wrong.”

“Yes, sir,” Chalmers said. “I wish I’d thought of that.”

“Learning these little tricks,” Watership remarked, “most of which don’t seem very important, is actually an important part of being a successful chemist.  The other parts include working very hard, which you clearly understand, and reading extensively, which I gather from Joel that you’ve been doing. So go to it, and by the way at some point try analyzing that violet crystal, too.”