Page:Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A - Volume 184.djvu/580

Rh union was never admitted to my measuring vessel, amongst other advantages, render my results more worthy of confidence than his. The means adopted by him for detecting any impurity are unable to detect such small amounts of foreign gas as were not only easily detected but measured by my method. As long as the bubble could be seen it could be measured, and this, as measured, was always a maximum. His excess over 2 volumes is just one-tenth part of what I find.

The value for the ratio found by from his determinations of the densities of hydrogen, oxygen, and the detonating gas from the electrolysis of strong potassium hydrate solution, agrees far more nearly with my value, which it exceeds somewhat, being—

I do not think, however, that this method can compare in accuracy with a direct method, even if it be proved that the detonating gas so prepared unites completely without any residue whatever of either oxygen, hydrogen, or foreign gas.

There is but little doubt that the carbon in hydrogen is due to acetates in his potassium hydrate giving ethane on electrolysis, some of which, although evolved at the opposite pole, being soluble to a certain extent in water, will find its way into the hydrogen. It is well known that potassium hydrate, purified by alcohol, is useless for gas analysis.

The values for the ratio of the volumes are, therefore,

and for densities—

Combining my value with that of Lord, we get for the atomic weight of oxygen—

a number almost identical with that of—

and with

Combining two values, we get for the same—