THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 



NO V EMBER 1887. 



XLIX. On the Action of the Solvent in Electrolytic Conduction. 

 By T. C. Fitzpatrick, B.A* 



IN a paper read at the Birmingham Meeting of the British 

 Association last year I gave some results of the measure- 

 ments of the conductivity of saline solutions ; the solutions 

 containing equivalent quantities of the same salt, the solvents 

 being different. Since then I have been making further 

 experiments on the nature of the action of the solvent in the 

 conductivity of electrolytes, the results of which I wish to 

 present in this paper. 



As solvents, water, ethyl -alcohol, and methyl-alcohol have 

 been employed. The water used in these measurements was 

 obtained by the distillation of the ordinary town supply, which 

 contains hardly a trace of ammonia or any organic matter. 

 The water was boiled for a long time, before distillation in a 

 glass still ; and the product was found to have a fairly con- 

 stant conductivity of '0000062, though the conductivity of the 

 water employed in each series of measurements was deter- 

 mined separately in each case. 



The ethyl-alcohol was almost absolute, having a specific 

 gravity of *795 ; it was carefully distilled, and its conduc- 

 tivity measured before each series of experiments. The methyl- 

 alcohol was treated in a similar way. 



All these solvents have a certain amount of action on glass ; 

 and this action varies with the character of the glass. Quite 



* Communicated by the Electrolysis Committee of the British Asso- 

 ciation, having been read at the jomt sitting of Sections A and B at the 

 recent British Association Meeting in Manchester. 



Phil. Mag. S. 5. Vol. 24, No. 150. Nov. 1887. 2 



