SPECIFIC GRAVITY.

Specific Gravity is the proportion of the weight of a body to that of an equal volume of some other substance adopted as a standard of reference. For solids and liquids the standard is pure water, at a temperature of 60° F., the barometer being at 30 inches.

Aëriform bodies are referred to the air as their standard. A cubic foot of water weighs 1,000 ounces; if the same bulk of another substance, as for instance cast iron, is found to weigh 7,200 ounces, its proportional weight or specific gravity is 7·2. It is convenient to know the figures representing this proportion for every substance in common use, that the weight of any given bulk may be readily determined. For all substances the specific gravity is used in various tests for the purpose of distinguishing bodies from each other, the same substance being found, under the equal conditions of temperature, &c., to retain its peculiar proportional weight or density.

Hence tables of specific gravities of bodies are prepared for reference, and in every scientific description of substances the specific gravity is mentioned. In practical use, the weight of a cubic foot is obtained from the figures representing the density by moving the decimal point three figures to the right, which obviously from the example above, gives the ounces, and these divided by 16 gives the pounds avoirdupois, in the cubic foot.

Different methods may be employed to ascertain the specific gravity of solids. That by measuring the bulk and weighing, is rarely practicable; as a body immersed in water must displace its own bulk of the fluid, the specific gravity may be ascertained by introducing a body, after weighing it, into a suitable vessel exactly filled with water, and then weighing the fluid which overflows. The proportional weight is thus at once obtained. Wax will cause its own weight of water to overflow; its specific gravity is then 1. Platinum, according to the condition it is in, will cause only from ¹⁄₂₁ to ¹⁄_21·5 of its weight of water to overflow, showing its specific gravity to be from 21 to 21·5. But a more exact method than this is commonly employed. The difference of weight of the same substance weighed in air and when immersed in water, is exactly that of the water it displaces, and may consequently be taken as the weight of its own bulk of water. [See Fig. 93] and rule and example on [page 95].

Fig. 91.

The specific gravity is then obtained by weighing the body first in air, and then, suspended by a fibre of silk or a hair, in water, and dividing the weight in air by the difference. It is hardly necessary to say that the substance examined must be free from mixture of foreign matters, and especially from cavities that may contain air.

Note.—Hydrometers are instruments for determining the relative density of fluids; distilled water is usually referred to as the standard of comparison. They consist usually of a bulb or float weighted at bottom so as to float upright, and having an elongated stem graduated to indicate the density of the liquid by the depth to which they sink therein.