CHEMISTRY. 253 



With the cooperation of Dr. K. G. Falk, two more papers summarizing 

 and discussing existing data on the properties of aqueous salt solutions in 

 relation to the ionic theory have been prepared and published. One of these 

 papers deals with the electrical conductance of dissolved salts and the other 

 compares and discusses the ionization values derived on the one hand from 

 conductance and on the other hand from freezing-point lowering. 



The experimental work, which had previously been confined to aqueous 

 solutions, has been extended to solutions in non-aqueous solvents. Dr. F. G. 

 Keyes and Mr. W. J. Winninghoff have made conductance measurements 

 with solutions of iodides in amyl alcohol. By means of a special apparatus 

 which enabled the measurements to be made out of contact with the air, 

 accurate results were obtained even at very high dilutions (e. g., up to 

 100,000 liters per mol of solute). 



From a comprehensive study of the conductivity values obtained in this 

 laboratory with aqueous and non-aqueous salt solutions and of those ob- 

 tained by other investigators, Dr. C. A. Kraus and Dr. W. C. Bray have 

 been able to show that there is an underlying uniformity in the behavior of 

 all solvents with respect to the ionization of salts dissolved in them. They 

 have found, namely, that a function of the form (cy) 2 /c (1 — y)=K-\- 

 D {c y) m (in which c is the concentration, and 7 the ionization of the salt, 

 and K, D, and m are constants varying with the nature of the salt and the 

 solvent) is generally applicable to univalent salts in any solvent through a 

 very wide range of concentration. They have also shown that in accordance 

 with this function, the mass-action law holds true in all solvents at suffi- 

 ciently high dilutions. A full discussion of the significance of these results 

 will appear in an article soon to be published. 



Richards, Theodore W., Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

 Grant No. 766, allotted December 15, 191 1. The determination of 

 atomic zveights and other fundamental properties of matter. (For pre- 

 vious reports see Year Books Nos. 2-10.) $3,000 



The work carried on during the winter of 1911-12 is briefly described 

 under the nine headings given below. 



(1) Further investigation of the atomic "weight of silver through the syn- 

 thesis of lithium perchlorate: 

 With the help of a previous grant Dr. H. H. Willard and the author had 

 found that the atomic weight of silver could be very satisfactorily studied 

 through the ratio of lithium chloride to silver on the one hand and of lithium 

 chloride to lithium perchlorate on the other hand. As usual in such investi- 

 gations, the value of the result depended entirely upon the purity of the 

 three substances concerned. Of these three, the first two (by the methods 

 already elaborated at Harvard) can be made in a state unusually free from 

 contamination. Only the last of the three, namely, lithium perchlorate, 

 remained somewhat in doubt because it was uncertain whether or not every 

 17 — YB 



