478 C. Barns — Fluid Volume and its 



Art. LTI. — Fluid Volume and its Relation to Pressure 

 and Temperature^ by C. Barus. 



Introductory. 



1. The present paper contains the introductory part of a 

 series of experiments on the compressibility of liquids, now in 

 progress at this laboratory. The incentive to the work was 

 given by Mr. Clarence King. In its development I am bene- 

 fited by his counsel. 



The geological purposes in view make it necessary to obtain 

 a preliminary survey of the whole field of inquiry. Experi- 

 mental details will be filled in later. 



2. The literature of the subject has recently been critically 

 digested by Professor Tait. 2 Excellent excerpts are to be found 

 in the Eortschritte der Phvsik. The work of Canton (1762-64), 

 Perkin (1820-26), (Eersted (1822), Colladon and Sturm (1827), 

 Pegnault (1847), Grassi (1851). Amaury and Descamps (1869), 

 is discussed in most text-books. Since that date the contri- 

 butions have been manifold, and are fast increasing. I shall 

 therefore principally confine myself to such papers in which 

 voluma changes produced by the simultaneous influence of 

 both pressure and temperature are considered. 



Setting aside the literature 3 of critical points, which is too 

 voluminous for admission here, the work of Cailletet 4 is first 

 to be noted, as introducing a long range of pressures (700 atm.). 

 Amagat's 6 early work contains a large temperature interval 

 (0° to 100°), but applies for pressures below 9 atm., only. The 

 results are discussed with reference to Dupre's 6 equation. Pass- 

 ing Buchanan's 7 and Van der Waals 8 results on the compressi- 

 bility of water and solutions, I come to the important step in 

 the subject made by Levy 9 , though he had been considerably 

 anticipated by Dupre 10 . Levy endeavors to prove that the 

 internal pressure of a body kept at constant volume is propor- 

 tional to its temperature. I have already stated 11 that Levy's 

 position is antagonized by H. F. Weber, 12 Boltzmann, 13 Clausius 1 * 



1 Communicated with the permission of the Director of the Geological Survey. 



2 Tait : Properties of matter. 



3 See Landolt aud Bcernstein's Physikalisch-chemische Tabellen, Berlin, J. 

 Springer. 1883, p. 62. 



4 Cailletet: C. R., lxxv, p. 77, 1872. 



5 Amagat: C. R., lxxxv, pp. 27, 139, 1877 ; Ann. ch. et phys., xi, p. 520, 1877. 

 « Dupre: C. R., lix. p. 490, 1864; ibid., lxvii, p. 392. 1868. 



7 Buchanan: Nature, xvii, p. 439, 1878. 



8 Van der Waals : Beiblatter, i, p. 511. 1877. 



9 Levy: C. R,. lxxxvii. 1878, pp. 449, 488, 676, 554, 649. 826 



10 Dupre: Theorie mecan. de la chaleur, Paris, Gauthier-Yillars-, 1869, p. 51. 



11 Cf. this Journal, xxxviii. p. 407, 1889. 



i 2 H. F. Weber: C. R.. lxxxvii, p. 517, 1878. 



13 Boltzmann: C. R., lxxxvii, pp. 593, 773, 1873. 



14 Clausius: C. R., lxxxvii, pp. 718, 1878. 



