A NEW CONSTITUENT OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 227 
the ordinary way. Any carbonic anhydride was removed by alkali before passage 
into the glass aspirating bottles used as gas-holders. 
The convenient working of this apparatus depends very much upon the mainten- 
ance of a suitable relation between the heat and the supply of water. It is desirable 
that the water in the can should actually boil, but without a great development of 
steam ; otherwise not only is there a waste of heat, and thus a smaller yield of gas, 
but the inverted flask used for the collection of the gas becomes inconveniently hot and 
charged with steam. It was found desirable to guard against this by the application 
of a slow stream of water to the external surface of the flask. -When the supply of 
water is once adjusted, nearly half a litre of gas per hour can be collected with very 
little attention. 
The gas, of which about four litres are required for each operation, was treated 
with red-hot copper, cupric oxide, sulphuric acid, potash, and finally phosphoric anhy- 
dride, exactly as atmospheric nitrogen was treated in former weighings. The weights 
found, corresponding to those recorded in §1, were on two occasions, 2°3221 and 
2°3227, showing an excess of 24 milliorms. above the weight of true nitrogen. Since 
the corresponding excess for atmospheric nitrogen is 11 milligrms., we conclude 
that the water-nitrogen is relatively twice as rich in argon. 
Unless some still better process can be found, it may be desirable to collect the 
gases ejected from boilers, or from large supply pipes which run over an elevation, 
with a view to the preparation of argon upon a large scale. 
The above experiments relate to rain water. As regards spring water, it is known 
that many thermal springs emit considerable quantities of gas, hitherto regarded as 
nitrogen. The question early occurred to us as to what proportion, if any, of the 
new gas was contained therein. A notable example of a nitrogen spring is that at 
Bath, examined by Davupeny in 1833. With the permission of the authorities of 
Bath, Dr. ArTHUR RicHARDSON was kind enough to collect for us about 10 litres of 
the gases discharged from the King’s Spring. A rough analysis on reception showed 
that it contained scarcely any oxygen and but little carbonic anhydride. Two 
determinations of density were made, the gas being treated in all respects as air, 
prepared by diffusion and unprepared, were treated for the isolation of atmospheric 
nitrogen. The results were :— 
@October2OPe ae) 2 ee ee Pee oe SONS 
IN\Owemilbere 7 5 65.6 6 6 ¢ 6 oo of wo - BSOHSY 
Meanie: ee va che ney eae een css (KD, 
The weight of the “nitrogen” from the Bath gas is thus about halfway between 
that of chemical and “atmospheric” nitrogen, suggesting that the proportion of 
argon is Jess than in air, instead of greater as had been expected. 
Dy (CY 
