History of Air-Analysis 



23 



F. Berger 1 in Geneva, in a paper criticizing the Fontana eudiometer, 

 mentions the phosphorus eudiometer as "introduced" by Giobert 2 of 

 Turin and "improved" by Spallanzani. 3 A number of tests comparing 

 the nitric-oxide with the phosphorus eudiometer all show the great advan- 

 tage of the latter. Using both alkaline sulphides and the phosphorus 

 eudiometer, he always found between 20 and 21 per cent. He analyzed 

 air from the glacier of Mont Cervin and other glaciers, but found the air 

 over the glacier no purer than air from the same height on a mountain. 

 He concludes that the atmosphere is throughout the whole extent of equal 

 composition and that the oxygen is very nearly one-fifth of the total air. 



The activity of numerous chemists in advocating various methods for 

 absorbing oxygen led to the rapid accumulation of evidence in favor of 

 the phosphorus and hydrogen eudiometers, but the latter seemed to have 

 the most extended use. 



Biot, 4 during a study of the air contained in the bladders of fishes, 

 analyzed the air of two islands in the Mediterranean, Formentera and 

 Iviza. They report that the analyses, which were made by the hydrogen- 

 explosion method, showed consistently an oxygen content of 21 per cent. 



In a like research, i.e., the analysis of the air contained in the bladders 

 of fishes, Configliachi 6 used side by side the phosphorus and the hydrogen 

 eudiometers, but apparently was more confident of results obtained with 

 the latter. In this research, analyses were made of outdoor air from moun- 

 tains, marshes, and grain fields. He concludes that his results, which 

 are given in table 2, show the uniform composition of the atmosphere. 



Table 2. Comparative study of the percentage of oxygen in atmospheric air, 



made by Configliachi. 



Employing a phosphorus eudiometer, Vogel 6 found in the air from the 

 Baltic Sea between 20 and 21 per cent of oxygen, the latter figure never 



1 Berger, Journal de Physique, 1802, 56, p. 253. 



2 Giobert (Journal de Physique, 1798, 47, p. 197) analyzed the air of Vaudier and of 

 Turin by the combustion of phosphorus. This refers probably to rapid rather than 

 slow combustion. In Vaudier he found from 25 to 33 per cent of oxygen, but in Turin the 

 variation was much less, being 26 to 28 per cent. 



3 Spallanzani, in his Memoires sur la Respiration, Geneva, 1803, p. 101, states that 

 the air we breathe contains 27 per cent of oxygen. 



4 Biot, Gilbert's Annalen der Physik, 1807, 26, p. 459. 



5 Configliachi, Journal fur Chemie und Physik, 1811, 1, p. 137. 



8 Vogel, Gilbert's Annalen der Physik und der physikalischen Chemie, 1820, 6, p. 93. 



