SECTION III, 1902 143 ] Trans. R. S. C. 
XVIII.—On the Density of Ice. 
By H. T. Barnes, M.A.Sc., D.Sc., 
Assistant Professor of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, 
AND 
H. Lester Coors, B.A., 
Demonstrator of Physics, McGill University, Montreal. 
(Communicated by Professor John Cox, M.A.) 
(Read May 27, 1902.) 
The earliest determination of the density of ice was made by 
Robert Boyle, and the method employed was to observe the difference 
in volume of a certain quantity of water contained in a calibrated 
receptacle, first in the liquid and then in the solid state, and from 
this to calculate the density of the ice. The vessel used was a glass 
one, with a long narrow neck on which the graduations were marked. 
This was filled with water exhausted under an air pump and so com- 
paratively free from air. A freezing mixture was then applied to 
the vessel from below, moving the mixture up as congelation took 
place, which by this method did not involve the fracture of the glass. 
In this way the volume of the water when frozen was observed 
to increase 11:12 per cent, which gives the value for the density of 
ice as 0-903. No great scientific value was aimed at here, the strains 
undergone by the glass during the formation of the ice rendering the 
results most uncertain, apart from the probable presence of minute 
cracks in the ice formation, a difficulty exceedingly hard to guard 
against in determinations involving the use of artificial ice. There 
were several other early determinations made by Williams, Heinrich, 
Dumas, Osann and others, and results obtained at various values rang- 
ing from 0-905 to 0-950. These, however, do not call for any special 
attention, as they were for the most part derived from investigations 
carried on in a comparatively rough way, and often involving cor- 
rections of such a nature as to render the results quite useless, from 
a scientific point of view. 
During the last century there were many accurate determinations 
of the density of ice. 
The first of these was performed by the German physicist Brunner. 
His method consisted of weighing ice in different media, whose densi- 
ties could be accurately determined. 
