Log. wt. CO2 in residual
.0438 = 62634
Log. I-II = 84392
———
49026 = 3.09 gms. CO2
Gms. to liters, 70680
———
(b) 19706 = 1.57 l. CO2
-------------------------------------------
Miscellaneous Calculations
875 48.65
164.55 25.9
——— 90.
710.46 ———
4.6 164.55
———
715.0 I
14
———
781.0 I-II
24
———
755.0 I-III
-----------------------------
(a) 7.26 l.
(b) 1.57 l.
———
8.82 = l. CO2 + H2O
Log. I-III = 87796
" temp. = 96912
" pressure = 99856
———
Total volume 84588 = 700.37 l.
Volume CO2 + H2O = 8.82 l.
———
" O + N = 691.56 l.
" N = 552.96 l.
———
" O = 186.57 l.
ABBREVIATED METHOD OF COMPUTATION OF OXYGEN ADMITTED TO THE CHAMBER FOR USE DURING SHORT EXPERIMENTS.
Desiring to make the apparatus as practicable and the calculations as simple as possible, a scheme of calculation has been devised whereby the computations may be very much abbreviated and at the same time there is not too great a sacrifice in accuracy. The loss in weight of the oxygen cylinder has, in the more complicated method of computation, been considered as due to oxygen and about 3 per cent of nitrogen. The amount of nitrogen thus admitted has been carefully computed and its volume taken into consideration in calculating the residual oxygen. If it is considered for a moment that the admission of gas out of the steel cylinder is made at just such a rate as to compensate for the decrease in volume of the air in the system due to the absorption of oxygen by the subject, it can be seen that if the exact volume of the gas leaving the cylinder were known it would be immaterial whether this gas were pure oxygen, oxygen with some nitrogen, or oxygen with any other inert gas not dangerous to respiration or not absorbed by sulphuric acid or potash-lime. If 10 liters of oxygen had been absorbed by the man in the course of an hour, to bring the system back to constant apparent volume it would be necessary to admit 10 liters of such a gas or mixture of gases, assuming that during the hour there had been no change in the temperature, the barometric pressure, or the residual amounts of carbon dioxide or water-vapor.
Under these assumed conditions, then, it would only be necessary to measure the amount of gas admitted in order to have a true measure of the amount of oxygen absorbed. The measure of the volume of the gas admitted may be used for a measure of the oxygen absorbed, even when it is necessary to make allowances for the variations in the amount of carbon dioxide or water-vapor in the chamber, the temperature, and barometric pressure. From the loss in weight of the oxygen cylinder, if the cylinder contained pure oxygen, it would be known that 10 liters would be admitted for every 14.3 grams loss in weight.
From the difference in weight of 1 liter of oxygen and 1 liter of nitrogen, a loss in weight of a gas containing a mixture of oxygen with a small per cent of nitrogen would actually represent a somewhat larger volume of gas than if pure oxygen were admitted. The differences in weight of the two gases, however, and the amount of nitrogen present are so small that one might almost wholly neglect the error thus arising from this admixture of nitrogen and compute the volume of oxygen directly from the loss in weight of the cylinder.
As a matter of fact, it has been found that by increasing the loss in weight of the cylinder of oxygen containing 3 per cent nitrogen by 0.4 per cent and then converting this weight to volume by multiplying by 0.7, the volume of gas admitted is known with great accuracy. This method of calculation has been used with success in connection with the large chamber and particularly for experiments of short duration. It has also been introduced with great success in a portable type of apparatus described elsewhere.[27] Under these conditions, therefore, it is unnecessary to make any correction on the residual volume of nitrogen as calculated at the beginning of the experiment. When a direct comparison of the calculated residual amount of oxygen present is to be made upon determinations made with a gas-analysis apparatus the earlier and much more complicated method of calculation must be employed.
CRITICISM OF THE METHOD OF CALCULATING THE VOLUME OF OXYGEN.
Since the ventilating air-current has a confined volume, in which there are constantly changing percentages of carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water-vapor, it is important to note that the nitrogen present in the apparatus when the apparatus is sealed remains unchanged throughout the whole experiment, save for the small amounts added with the commercial oxygen—amounts well known and for which definite corrections can be made. Consequently, in order to find the amount of oxygen present in the residual air at any time it is only necessary to determine the amounts of carbon dioxide and water-vapor and, from these two factors and from the known volume of nitrogen present, it is possible to compute the total volume of oxygen after calculating the total absolute volume of air in the chamber at any given time.
While the apparent volume of the air remains constant throughout the whole experiment, by the conditions of the experiment itself the absolute amount may change considerably, owing primarily to the fluctuations in barometric pressure and secondarily to slight fluctuations in the temperature of the air inside of the chamber. Although the attempt is made on the part of the observers to arbitrarily control the temperature of this air to within a few hundredths of a degree, at times the subject may inadvertently move his body about in the chair just a few moments before the end of the period and thus temporarily cause an increased expansion of the air. The apparatus is, in a word, a large air-thermometer, inside the bulb of which the subject is sitting. If the whole system were inclosed in rigid walls there would be from time to time noticeable changes in pressure on the system due to variations in the absolute volume, but by means of the tension-equalizer these fluctuations in pressure are avoided.