.•U ARGON, A NEW CONSTITUENT OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 



jiulged by tlie specti'um) a residue of about 2 per cent of nitrogen. Tlie pi-ocedure 

 and the calculations followed pretty closely the coui-se marked out by Bunsen,' and 

 it is scarcely necessary to record the details. The (piantity of gas operated upon 

 was about -i c. c, of which about 1 .\ o. c. were absorbed. The final result for the 

 si>lubility was 0.0394 at 12° C, about 2^ times that of nitrogen. 



Similar results have been obtained with argon pi-epared by means of magne- 

 sium. At a temperature of 13°.9, 131 arbitraiy measures of water absorbed 5.3 of 

 argon. This coriesjjonds to a solubility in distilled water, pieviously freed from 

 dissolved gas by boiling in vacuo for a quarter of an hour, and admitted to the 

 tube containing argon without contact with air, of 4.05 c. c. of argon per 100 of 

 water. 



The fact that the gas is more soluble than nitrogen would lead us to expect it 

 ill increased [)roporti(in in the dissolved gases of rain water. Experiments have 

 been devised to test this conjecture, but hitherto time has been wanting for carry- 

 ing them out. As I'egards spring water, it is known that many thermal springs 

 emit considerable (piantities of gas, hitherto regaiiled as nitrogen. The question 

 early occurred to us, as to what proportion, if any, of the new gas was contained 

 therein. A notable example of a nitrogen spring is that at Bath examined 1)}' 

 Daubeny in 1833. With the permission of the authorities of Bath, Dr. Arthur Rich- 

 ardson was kind enough to collect for us about 10 litres of the gases discharged 

 from the King's Spring. A rough analysis on reception showed that it contained 

 scarcely any o.xygen and but little carbon dioxide. Two determinations of density 

 were made, the gas being treated in all respects as air, prepared bj- diffusion and 

 unprepai'ed, was treated for the isolation of atmospheric nitrogen. The results 

 were : 



October 29th 2 . 305 13 



November 7th 2.30532 



Mean 2 . 305 2 2 



The weight of the " niti-ogen " from the Bath gas is thus about half-way between 

 that of chemical and "atmospheric" nitrogen, sugge.sting that the proportion of 

 argon is less than in air, instead of greater, as had been expected. 



13. Attejipt at Liquefaction. 



Up till now, argon has not Ix-eii litpiefied. A simple experiment has been 

 made with the original sample of gas, of density 19.1, which certainly contained a 

 considerable aniouiit of nitrogen. On compressing it in a pressure-apparatus to 



' Gasometry, p. 141. 



