

The Stratifications of Hydrogen. 407 



then left all night, and the stratifications examined next morning. 

 The blue colour to each face was now unmistakably visible. The 

 refilling with hydrogen and exhausting was then continued. It was 

 not possible in this way to get the tube entirely free from mercury, 

 although it got less and less, as shown by the diminution of the blue 

 faces. 



Occasionally, when no mercury was present, a faint blue edging to 

 some of the front pink strata was seen. This blue was too faint to 

 show lines in its spectrum. After much searching the blue tint was 

 traced to the phosphoric drying tubes. A clean tube was taken for 

 stratifications, and sealed to the apparatus used in the last experiments. 

 The whole was exhausted to a high point, and one of the phosphoric- 

 anhydride tubes was gently heated with a gas flame, the current kept 

 going. Instantly a flood of blue light swept through the tube, and 

 when concentrated in a narrow constriction the light showed a compli- 

 cated spectrum which was not recognised : none of the characteristic 

 lines of the phosphorus spectrum could be seen in it. The tube was 

 cleared of the blue colour by introducing hydrogen and pumping it 

 out a few times, and then hydrogen was introduced and exhaustion 

 continued to the stratification point. The strata now were pink with 

 no appearance of blue. "Warming the phosphoric anhydride tulx3 at 

 once reproduced the faint blue edging to the pink discs. This blue 

 colour was different both in tint and intensity to the blue colour pro- 

 duced by mercury, but it was too faint to show a spectrum except in 

 the constricted part. 



It is of importance to ascertain whether the body producing this 

 blue colour can be removed from the phosphoric anhydride. The 

 drying tube was again heated to the subliming point of the anhydride, 

 hydrogen passed in, and the pump worked until the vacuum was 

 almost non-conducting. The heating, passing in hydrogen, and pump- 

 ing were several times repeated, the impurities diminishing each time. 

 Ultimately a point was reached when, the tube being non-conducting, 

 heating the phosphoric anhydride did not communicate any gas to the 

 vacuum tube. At this stage the phosphoric anhydride still retained 

 unimpaired its affinity for water. In any accurate experiment, there- 

 fore, the phosphoric anhydride tubes should have a preliminary heat- 

 ing in a vacuum to eliminate the impurity. This may be done with 

 several tubes at a time, when they can be sealed at each end and 

 preserved for future use. 



It is thus seen that this blue glow is due to some impurity in the 

 phosphoric anhydride. Likewise I have shown from the examination 

 of its spectrum that it is not due to phosphorus. The glow probably 

 is due to some intermediate oxide of phosphorus. In any accurate 

 work with the mercury pump, where phosphoric anhydride is used as 

 the drying agent, this source of impurity must not be overlooked. 



