G34 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1883. 



and K. Olszewski have taken up tbe study of the liquefaction of gases 

 with great success. Iu 1S82 Cailletet had recommended liquefied ethy- 

 lene as a means of producing intense cold ; this liquid at the normal 

 pressure boils at — 105° C. Having compressed oxygen in a tube, and 

 cooled it by means of liquid ethylene to — 105°, Cailletet observed, when 

 some of the gas was allowed to escape, "a tumultuous ebullition which 

 lasted for an appreciable time and resembled the projection of a liquid 

 into the cooled portion of the tube," but the liquid and gas could not be 

 separated. By means of a new apparatus, the Austrian chemists sub- 

 jected comparatively large amounts of gas to a pressure of several hun- 

 dred atmospheres, and thereby obtained some remarkably low tempera- 

 tures ; carbon disulphide and alcohol were solidified, and oxygen was 

 easily and completely liquefied. By allowing the liquefied ethylene to 

 boil in a vacuum a temperature of — 136° was obtained, as determined 

 by the hydrogen thermometer. Oxygen begins to liquefy at a pressure 

 of 26.5 atmospheres and a temperature of — 131. G°, and forms a colorless 

 transparent liquid, very mobile, and yielding a sharp meniscus. Carbon 

 disulphide freezes at about — 110° ; alcohol becomes viscous like oil at 

 about — 129°, and solidifies to a white mass at — 130.5°. 



These results were communicated to the French Academy of Sciences 

 early in the year 188 3, and on the last day of the same year Wroblewski 

 announced the following additional results. 



Having succeeded in obtaining liquefied oxygen in large quantity he 

 employed it as a refrigerating agent. "When liquid oxygen is suddenly 

 allowed to evaporate by release of the pressure it does not solidify like 

 carbon dioxide, but it leaves a crystalline residue on the bottom of the 

 apparatus. Whether this is crystallized oxygen or not, Wroblewski' 

 was unable to determine. In attempting to measure the temperature of. 

 oxygen in a state of ebullition he made use of a thermo-electric method 

 which admits of the registration of all the sudden changes of tempera- 

 ture of the medium and is also very sensitive. Wroblewski gives the 

 temperature of —186° C. " as the first approximation to tbe temperature 

 produced by the sudden release from pressure of liquefied oxygen." By 

 submitting nitrogen to this low temperature, the compressed gas allowed 

 to expand a little solidifies and '* falls like snow in crystals of remarka- 

 ble size." 



Experiments of this character demand great resources and are not 

 devoid of danger. Wroblewski states that since the apparatus is partly 

 constructed of glass great inconvenience is caused by the constant dan- 

 ger of serious explosions, and having experienced several accidents he 

 and his assistants always work with masks before their faces. (Comptes 

 rendus, xcvi, 1140 et seq. Also, abstracts in Am. Ghent. Joum., y, 

 14G, and Chem. News, xlix, 13.) 



Radiant Matter Spectroscopy, a new Method of Spectrum Analysis. — 

 William Crookes gave the Bakerian Lecture before the Koyal Society 



