This quantity of the strong solution of salt, mixed with the normal solution in the drum, will correct its standard, and we shall now see by how much.
After having washed the tubes and the pipette, with the new solution, we must repeat the experiment upon a fresh gramme of silver. We shall find, for example, in proceeding only by a thousandth at a time, that the first causes a precipitate, but not the second. The standard of the solution is still too weak, and is comprised between 1000 and 1001; that is to say, it may be equal to 10001⁄2, but we must make a closer approximation.
We pour into the test bottle 2 thousandths of the decime solution of silver, which will destroy, perceptibly, two thousandths of sea salt, and the operation will have retrograded by two thousandths; that is to say, it will be brought back to the point at which it was first of all. If, after having cleared up the liquor, we add half a thousandth of the decime solution, there will necessarily be a precipitate, as we knew beforehand, but a second will cause no turbidity. The standard of the normal liquor will be consequently comprehended between 1000 and 10001⁄2, or equal to 10001⁄4.
We should rest content with this standard, but if we wish to correct it, we may remark that the two quantities of solution of salt added, viz. 2279·3 gr. + 30·02 gr. = 2309·32 gr. have produced only 999·75 thousandths, and that we must add a new quantity of it corresponding to 1⁄4 of a thousandth. We make, therefore, the proportion
999·75 : 2309·32 ∷ 0·25 : x.
But since the first term differs very little from 1000, we may content ourselves to have x by taking the 0·25⁄1000 of 2309·32, and we shall find 0·577 gr. for the quantity of solution of sea salt to be added to the normal solution.
It is not convenient to take exactly so small a quantity of solution of sea salt by the balance, but we shall succeed easily by the following process. We weigh 50 grammes of this solution, and we dilute it with water; so that it occupies exactly half a litre, or 500 centimetres cube. A pipette of this solution, one centimetre cube in volume, will give a decigramme of the primitive solution, and as such a small pipette is divided into twenty drops, each drop, for example, will represent 5 milligrammes of the solution. We should arrive at quantities smaller still by diluting the solution with a proper quantity of water; but greater precision would be entirely needless.
The testing of the normal liquor just described, is, in reality, less tedious than might be supposed. It deserves also to be remarked, that liquor has been prepared for more than 1000 assays; and that, in preparing a fresh quantity, we shall obtain directly its true standard, or nearly so, if we bear in mind the quantities of water and solution of salt which had been employed.
Correction of the Standard of the Normal Solution of Sea Salt, when the Temperature changes.—We have supposed, in determining the standard of the normal solution of sea salt, that the temperature remained uniform. The assays made in such circumstances, have no need of correction; but if the temperature should change, the same measure of the solution will not contain the same quantity of sea salt. Supposing that we have tested the solution of the salt at the temperature of 15° C.; if, at the time of making the experiment, the temperature is 18° C., for example, the solution will be too weak on account of its expansion, and the pipette will contain less of it by weight; if, on the contrary, the temperature has fallen to 12°, the solution will be thereby concentrated and will prove too strong. It is therefore proper to determine the correction necessary to be made, for any variation of temperature.