A watchglass can be used as a beaker cover, but you can also place small amounts of chemicals on it and then heat it (for example, to evaporate some water from a wet chemical).
From Wikipedia:
A watch glass is a circular, slightly concave piece of glass used in chemistry as a surface to evaporate a liquid, or as a cover for a beaker. The latter use is generally applied to prevent dust or other particles entering the beaker; the watch glass does not completely seal the beaker, and so gas exchanges still occur.
When used as an evaporation surface, a watch glass allows closer observation of precipitates or crystallisation, and can be placed on a surface of contrasting colour to improve the visibility overall.
Watch glasses are so named because they are identical to the glass used for the front of old-fashioned pocket watches. In reference to this, large watch glasses are occasionally known as clock glasses.
See the Related Questions and Web Links to the left for a picture of watch glass and more information about other laboratory apparatus.
First answer by JEK. Last edit by JEK. Contributor trust: 1775 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 21 [recommend question]
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