Elements of Chemistry, / In a New Systematic Order, Containing all the Modern Discoveries

by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier

SECT. III.

Some other methods of measuring the volume of Gasses.

The gazometer described in the foregoing section is too costly and too complicated for being generally used in laboratories for measuring the gasses, and is not even applicable to every circumstance of this kind. In numerous series of experiments, more simple and more readily applicable methods must be employed. For this purpose I shall describe the means I used before I was in possession of a gazometer, and which I still use in preference to it in the ordinary course of my experiments.

Suppose that, after an experiment, there is a residuum of gas, neither absorbable by alkali nor water, contained in the upper part of the jar AEF, Pl. IV. Fig. 3. standing on the shelf of a pneumato-chemical apparatus, of which we wish to ascertain the quantity, we must first mark the height to which the mercury or water rises in the jar with great exactness, by means of slips of paper pasted in several parts round the jar. If we have been operating in mercury, we begin by displacing the mercury from the jar, by introducing water in its stead. This is readily done by filling a bottle quite full of water; having stopped it with your finger, turn it up, and introduce its mouth below the edge of the jar; then, turning down its body again, the mercury, by its gravity, falls into the bottle, and the water rises in the jar, and takes the place occupied by the mercury. When this is accomplished, pour so much water into the cistern ABCD as will stand about an inch over the surface of the mercury; then pass the dish BC, Pl. V. Fig. 9. under the jar, and carry it to the water cistern, Fig. 1. and 2. We here exchange the gas into another jar, which has been previously graduated in the manner to be afterwards described; and we thus judge of the quantity or volume of the gas by means of the degrees which it occupies in the graduated jar.

There is another method of determining the volume of gas, which may either be substituted in place of the one above described, or may be usefully employed as a correction or proof of that method. After the air or gas is exchanged from the first jar, marked with slips of paper, into the graduated jar, turn up the mouth of the marked jar, and fill it with water exactly to the marks EF, Pl. IV. Fig. 3. and by weighing the water we determine the volume of the air or gas it contained, allowing one cubical foot, or 1728 cubical inches, of water for each 70 pounds, French weight.

The manner of graduating jars for this purpose is very easy, and we ought to be provided with several of different sizes, and even several of each size, in case of accidents. Take a tall, narrow, and strong glass jar, and, having filled it with water in the cistern, Pl. V. Fig. 1. place it upon the shelf ABCD; we ought always to use the same place for this operation, that the level of the shelf may be always exactly similar, by which almost the only error to which this process is liable will be avoided. Then take a narrow mouthed phial which holds exactly 6 oz. 3 gros 61 grs. of water, which corresponds to 10 cubical inches. If you have not one exactly of this dimension, choose one a little larger, and diminish its capacity to the size requisite, by dropping in a little melted wax and rosin. This bottle serves the purpose of a standard for gaging the jars. Make the air contained in this bottle pass into the jar, and mark exactly the place to which the water has descended; add another measure of air, and again mark the place of the water, and so on, till all the water be displaced. It is of great consequence that, during the course of this operation, the bottle and jar be kept at the same temperature with the water in the cistern; and, for this reason, we must avoid keeping the hands upon either as much as possible; or, if we suspect they have been heated, we must cool them by means of the water in the cistern. The height of the barometer and thermometer during this experiment is of no consequence.

When the marks have been thus ascertained upon the jar for every ten cubical inches, we engrave a scale upon one of its sides, by means of a diamond pencil. Glass tubes are graduated in the same manner for using in the mercurial apparatus, only they must be divided into cubical inches, and tenths of a cubical inch. The bottle used for gaging these must hold 8 oz. 6 gros 25 grs. of mercury, which exactly corresponds to a cubical inch of that metal.

The method of determining the volume of air or gas, by means of a graduated jar, has the advantage of not requiring any correction for the difference of height between the surface of the water within the jar, and in the cistern; but it requires corrections with respect to the height of the barometer and thermometer. But, when we ascertain the volume of air by weighing the water which the jar is capable of containing, up to the marks EF, it is necessary to make a farther correction, for the difference between the surface of the water in the cistern, and the height to which it rises within the jar. This will be explained in the fifth section of this chapter.