ART. 299 - On the Density of Nitrous Oxide

Summary

In the Proceedings, Vol. LXXII. p. 204, 1897, I have given particulars of weighings of nitrous oxide purified by two distinct methods. In the first procedure, solution in water was employed as a means of separating less soluble impurities, and the result was 3·6356 grammes. In the second method a process of fractional distillation was employed. Gas drawn from the liquid so prepared gave 3·6362. These numbers may be taken to represent the corrected weight of the gas which fills the globe at 0° C. and at the pressure of the gauge (at 15°), and they correspond to 2·6276 for oxygen.

Inasmuch as nitrous oxide is heavier than the impurities likely to be contained in it, the second number was the more probable. But as I thought that the first method should also have given a good result, I contented myself with the mean of the two methods, viz. 3·6359, from which I calculated that referred to air (free from H₂O and CO₂) as unity, the density of nitrous oxide was 1·52951.

The corresponding density found by M. Leduc is 1·5301, appreciably higher than mine; and M. Leduc argues that the gas weighed by me must still have contained one or two thousandths of nitrogen. According to him the weight of the gas contained in my globe should be 3·6374, or 1·5 milligrammes above the mean of the two methods.