Page:The Liquefaction of Gases.djvu/65

Rh worthy of confidence than the former, and yet it is manifest that the curve is not consistent with the idea of a pure single substance, for the pressures at the lowest temperature are too high. I believe that there are still two bodies present, and that the more volatile, as before said, is condensable in the liquid of the less volatile; but I think there is a far smaller proportion of the more volatile (nitrogen, or whatever it may be) than in the former case.

Olefiant gas.—The olefiant gas condensed in the former experiment was prepared in the ordinary way, using excellent alcohol and sulphuric acid; then washed by agitation with about half its bulk of water, and finally left for three days over a thick mixture of lime and water with occasional agitation. In this way all the sulphurous and carbonic acids were removed, and I believe all the ether, except such minute portions as could not interfere with my results. In respect of the ether, I have since found that the process is satisfactory; for when I purposely added ether vapour to air, so as to increase its bulk by one-third, treatment like that above removed it, so as to leave the air of its original volume. There was yet a slight odour of ether left, but not so much as that conferred by adding one volume of the vapour of ether to 1200 or 1500 volumes of air. I find that when air is expanded th or rd more by the addition of the vapour of ether, washing first of all with about of its volume of water, then again with about as much water, and lastly with its volume of water, removes the ether to such a degree, that though a little smell may remain, the air is of its original volume.

As already stated, it is the presence of other and more volatile hydrocarbons than olefiant gas, which the tensions obtained seemed to indicate, both in the gas and the liquid resulting from its condensation. In a