RATIO o : 16. 253 



trifle " high " did he conclude the Laws of Nature to be 

 false? 



No ; he suspected some heavier gas present as an impurity 

 that had escaped the reagents used for purification. 



He tried to isolate it, and discovered argon. 



Does Morley's hydrogen contain a trace of argon ? What 

 is it that causes this slight difference in weight, almost 

 covered by the actual uncertainties of weighing brought 

 out by us? 



Is it simply due to errors of handling and weighing of 

 hydrogen?* Let us remember that Morley found oxygen 

 much heavier in "globe 5 " than in "globe 3." 



Probably that is all. At any rate no certain difference of 

 the atomic weight by hydrogen has been established by 

 Morley from the value of the sixteenth of that of oxygen. 



Morley says his gases were pure ; yet he reports having 

 found CO?, N, etc., in these pure gases, and that he don't 

 know how they got there ! 



Morley's Ratio : H. 



We want to obtain the ratio of oxygen to hydrogen, and 

 also the value of hydrogen for oxygen taken at 16. 



According to Morley, the first is 15.879; this has been 

 " adopted" by the Chief Chemist and made the basis of his 

 Smithsonian System of Atomic Weights (Constants of 

 Nature, 1897, p. 33). 



Therefore, it is taken as true by all official chemists of 

 the United States and by the American Chemical Society. 



But is this really the expression of Morley's determina- 

 tions? 



Oh, not at all, as every one familiar with the determina- 

 tion of the QUOTIENT of two experimental data knows.* 



*This professional blunder is most remarkable, since nearly all com- 

 mon works on quantitative research give specific directions on this point. 



See Kohlrausch's Leitf aden, IV ed., 1880, p. 7-9, which treats this very 

 case of the error of a quotient, such as a specific gravity determination. 



The simplest is my method in my Elements of Physics, 1870, p. 12. 



The corresponding condition in Ostwald's Hand und Hilfsbuch, 1893, 

 p. 4, last case, is not fulfilled, for O is over four times as accurately 

 determined as H. See p. 252. 



