NATURE [March 14, 1889 overlooked in the general theory of inheritance. I am fully be no lighter than that formerly obtained from sulphuric aware that I shall be accused of flat Lamarckism ; but a nickname acid. is not an argument. MARCUS M. HARTOG. I have also tried to purify hydrogen yet further by Cork, March 6. absorption in palladium. In his recent important memoir (Amer. Clzem.Journ., vol. x. No. 4), "On the Combustion of A Fine Meteor. Weighed Quantities of Hydrogen and the Atomic Weight of A FINE meteor was visible here to-night at 6.36 p.m. It fell Oxygen," Mr. Keiser describes experiments from which it' perpendicularly almost due north-north-east, disappearing about appears that palladium will not occlude nitrogen-a very 20° ab:>ve the horizon, and was then as nearly as pos-ible of the probable impurity in even the most carefully prepared brilliancy and co lour of Venus, which was shining in the south· gas. My palladium was placed in a tube scaled, as a west at the tim e. Length of path, I think, about 20', but I am lateral attachment, to the middle of that containing the not positive that I saw the beginning of it. phosphoric anhydride; so that the hydrogen was sub• B. "\Vo0DD SMITH. mitted in a thorough manner to this reagent, both before Hampstead Heath, N. W., March 11. and after absorption by the palladium. Any impurity that might be rejected by the palladium was washed out of Bishop's Ring. the tube by a current of hydrogen before the gas was collected for weighing. But as the result of even this I AM informed by Miss E. Brown, of Cirencester, that she saw treatment I have no improvement to report, Bishop's ring in full day-time as recently as last mon•h , not far the density of the ga<; being almost exactly as before. from 12 o'clock one day, the sun being hidden behind a cloud at the time. It appeared very sim ilar in extent, as well as colour, Hitherto the observations have related merely to the though not intensity, to what it did after the Krakatao eruption. densities of hydrogen and oxygen, giving the ratio 15·884, Also another day she noticed something like it when loo king at as former\y explained. To infer the composition of water the sun simply through a dark glass. by weight, this number had to be combined with that I have very occas_ionally myself in the last few years seen a found by Mr. Scott as representing the ratio of volumes. somewhat similar phenomenon, but duller and dirtier in colour The result was- than Bishop's ring usually was, and which gave me the impres• sion of being lowe r down in the atmosphere than that. I I : __ X _r5 ~84 = r5·914. attributed this to smoke or some other loca l impurity. It would ·, 1 ·9965 appear that the phenomenon seen by Miss Brown, out in the country, cannot have been thus caused ; hut I suppose that she The experiments now to be described are an attempt mu st really have seen the corona proclncecl by volcanic dust, at an entirely independent determination of the relative through an exceptionally pure lower atmosphere. weights by actual combustion of weighed quantities of the Sunderland, March. T. "\V. BACKH0GSE. two gases. It will be remembered that in Dumas's in• vestigation the composition of water is inferred from the The Philosophical Transactions. weights of the oxygen and of the water, the hydrogen being unweighed. In order to avoid the MOST people who very unfavour• interest themselves in science would be glad able conditions of this method, recent to possess a complete set of the Philos workers have made ophical Transactions. But it a point to weigh the hydrogen in th e first place complete sets are scarce, and in the second it , whether in the gaseous state, as in the experiments woulcl be much too expensiw f_,r ordinary people ; furthermore, of Prof. Cooke and my own~ it is not in everyone's library that room could be found for its or occluded in palladium, as in Mr. Keiser's practice. So• reception. Now, Drs. Hutton, Shaw, and Pears ,n brought long as the hydrogen is weighed, it is not very material out a first-rate abridgment of this valuable publication from its whether the second weighing relate to the water or to the commencement lo the end of the year 1800. May I venture to oxygen. The former is the case in the work of Cooke and suggest that the Royal Society would be doing a good work by Keiser, the latter in the preliminary experiments now to publishing on the same lines a continuation up to the year 1900 ? be reported. If they commenced now, and brought uut a volume at intervals, Nothing could be simpler in principle than the method the whole thing might be completed in the early years of the adopted. Globes ·of the same size as those employed for tw entieth century. The cost ought not to be very great, and the density determinations are filled to atmospheric probably nearly every free library would subscribe. S. pressure with the two gases, and are then carefully weighed. By means of Sprengel pumps the gases are exhausted into a mixing chamber, sealed below with ON THE COivJPOSITION OF WATER.' mercury, and thence by means of a third Sprengel are conducted D URING the past year I have continued the work into a cudiometer, also sealed below with mercury, described in a former communication on the where they are fired by ele:tric sparks in the relative densities of hydrogen and oxygen (Roy. Soc. usual way. After sufficient quantities of the gases have Proc., February r888, vol. xliii. p. 356; see also NATURE, been withdrawn, the taps of the globes are turned, the leading vol, xxxvii. p. 418), in the hope of being able to pre• tubes and mixing chamber are cleared of all re• mainin pare lighter hydrogen than was then found possible. g gas, and, after a final explosion in the eudio• meter, the To this end, various modifications have been made in nature and amount of the residual gas are determined. tbe generating apparatus. Hydrogen has been prepared The quantities taken from the globes can be found from potash, in place of acid. In one set of experi• from the weights before and after operations. From the quantity ments the gas was liberated by aluminium. In this case of that gas which proved to be in excess, the calculated weight the generator consisted of a large closed tube sealed of the residue is subtracted. This gives to the remainder of the apparatus; and the a luminium the weight of the two gases which actually took part in the combustion. was attached to an iron armature so arranged that, by In practice, means of an external electro-magnet, it was possible to the operation is more difficult than might be supposed from lower it into the potash, or to remove it therefrom. The the above description. The efficient capacity liberated gas passed through tubes containing liquid of the eudiometer being necessarily somewhat limited, po1ash/ corrosive sublimate, finely powdered solid potash, the gases must be fed in throughout in very nearly the equiv and, hstly, a long length of phosphoric anhydride. But alent proportions; otherwise there would soon be such the result was disappointing, for the hydrogen proved to an accumulation of residue that no• further progress could be made. For this reason 1 A Paper read at the Royal Svciety, by L ::, r ©1889 Nature Publishing Group NATURE equivalent quantities of the two gases. The oxygen was error, of a non-chemical character, is in the estimation of first admitted until the level of the mercury had dropped the weight of the hydrogen. Although this part of the to a certain mark, and subsequently the hydrogen down work cannot be conducted under quite such favourabk to a second mark, whose position relatively to the first conditions as in the case of a density determination, the was determined by preliminary measurements of volume. error in the difference of the two weighings should not The mixed gases might then be drawn off into the eudio• exceed 0·0002 gramme. The whole weight of the hydrogen meter until exhausted, after which the chamber might used is about o·r gramme;' so that the error should not be re-charged as before. But a good deal of time may exceed 3 in the last figure of the final number. It is be saved by replenishing the chamber from the globes thus scarcely possible to explain the variations among the simultaneously with the exhaustion into the eudiometer. five numbers as due merely to errors of the weighings. In order to do this without losing the proper proportion, The following are the details of the determination of simple mercury manometers were provided for indicating February 2, chosen at random :- the pressures of the gases at any time remaining in the Before combustion .. . G +II+ 0·2906 = <~ ... pointer 20 ·05 globes. But even with this assistance close attention was 14 11 After G 14 +H+o'4006=G11 ... pointer 20·31 necessary to obviate an accumulation of residual gas in Hydrogen taken=o·1 IOo-0·0000: =0·10995 gramme. the eucliometer, such as would endanger the success of Before combustion ... G 13 +O=G11 +2·237 ... poi_nter 20·00 the experiment, or, at least, entail tedious delay. To ob• Alter G +O=G + 1·357 ... pomter 19·3 tain a reasonable control, two sparking places were pro• 13 11 vided, of which the upper was situate nearly at the top of Oxygen take11=0·8800+0·0Jot=o 8801 gramme. the eudiometer. This was employed at the close, and At the close of operations the residue in the eudio• whenever in the course of the combustion the residual meter was oxygen, occupying 7"8 cubic centimetres. gas chanced to be much reduced in quantity ; but, as a This Wi,S at a total pressure of 29·6 - 16 2 = 13'4 inches rule, the explosions were made from the lower sparking of mercury. Subtracting 0·4 inch for the pressure of point. The most convenient state of things was attained the water vapour, we get 13·0 as representing the oxygen when the tube contained excess of oxygen clown to a pressure. The temperature was about 12° C. Thus, point somewhat below the lower sparking wires. Under taking the weight of a cubi- centimetre of oxygen at these circumstances, each bubble of explosive gas readily o0 C., and under a pressure of 76·0 centimetres of found its way to the sparks, and there was no tendency mercury to be 0·00143 gramme, we get as the weight to a dangerous accumulation of mixed gas before an of the residual oxygen- explosion took place. \Vhen the gas in excess was 7 3 54 hydrogen, the manipulation was more difficult, on account 0·00143 · q·oxz· =0·0046 gramme. l + I 2 X O ·00367 76 ·o of the greater density of the explosive gas retarding its travel to the necessary height. The weight of oxygen burnt was, therefore, 0·8801 In spite of all precautions several attempted determina• 0·0046 = 0·8755 gran1me. tions have failed from various causes, such as fracture of Finally, for the rate of atomic weight- the eudiometer and others which it is not necessary here . Oxygen = l 5 ·926. to particularize, leading to the loss of much labour. Five !, Hyclrog,·n results only can at present be reported, and are as In several cases the residual gas was subjected to follows:- analysis. Thus, after the determination of February 2, Decemher 24, 1888 15·93 the volume was reduced by additions of hydrogen to January 3, 1889 15 ·98 1·2 cubic centimetre. On introduction of potash there 21, 15 ·98 was shrinkage to about 0·9, and, on addition of pyro• February" 2, 15·93 gallic acid, to 0·1 or 0·2. These volumes of gas are 13, 15·92 here measured at a pressure of t atmosphere, and are, Mean 15 ·95 therefore, to be divided by 3 if we wish to estimate the quantities of gas under standard conditions. The final This number represents the atomic ratio of oxygen and residue of (say) 0·05 cubic centimetre should be nitrogen, hydrogen as deduced immediately from the weighings and, even if originally mixed with the hydrogen-~the with allowance for the unburnt residue. It is subject to most unfavourable case-would involve an error of only the correction for buoyancy rendered necessary by the .,01,H5 in the final result. The o· I cubic centimetre of car• shrinkage of the external volume of the globes when in• bonic anhydride, if originally contained in the hydrogen, ternally exhausted, as explained in my former communi• would be more important, but this is very improbable. ,cation.1 In these experiments, the globe which contained If originally mixed with the oxygen, or due to leakage the hydrogen was the same ( l 4) as that employed for the through india-rubber into the combustion apparatus, it density determinations. The necessary correction is thus would lead to no appreciable error. four parts in a thousand, reducing the final number for The aggregate impurity of o·r 5, here indicated, is toler• the atomic weight of oxygen to- ably satisfactory in compar-ison with the total quantity of 15 ·89, gas dealt with-2000 cubic centimetres. It is possible, somewhat lower than that which I formerly obtained however, that nitrogen might be oxidized, and thus not ( 15·91) by the use of Mr. Scott's value of the volume ratio. manifest itself under the above tests. In another experi• It may be convenient to recall that the corresponding ment the water of combustion was examined for acidity, number obtained by Cooke and Richards (corrected for but without definite indications of nitric acid. The shrinkage) is 15·87, while that of Keiser is 15·95. slight reddening observed appeared to be rather that In the present incomplete state of the investigation, I due to carbonic aci"1, some of which, it must be remem• ©1889 Nature Publishing Group