[ ] 
XI. On Evaporation and Dissociation. —Part AX" A Study of the Thermal Properties 
of Methyl-Alcohol. 
By Professor William Ramsay, Ph.D., and Sydney Young, D.Sc. 
Communicated by Professor G. G. Stokes, P.R.S. 
Received January 6,—Read January 20, 1887. 
[Plates 14-18.] 
In previous memoirs we have given the results of investigations of the thermal 
properties of ethyl-alcohol, acetic acid, and ethyl oxide (ether). The subject of the 
present paper is the vapour-pressures, vapour-densities, and expansion of methyl- 
alcohol; and from these results the heats of vaporisation have been deduced. The 
range of temperature is from —16° to the critical temperature 240°; and the 
range of pressure from 11 millims. to 60,000 millims. 
Preparation of pure methyl-alcohol. f—A finely crystallised sample of methyl 
oxalate was distilled with ammonia; the distillate was rectified, and when partially 
freed from water was distilled with quicklime. The distillate was again distilled 
from barium oxide, and then allowed to stand for some weeks over anhydrous copper 
sulphate ; but the boiling-point was found to be by no means constant. It was then 
distilled six times over small quantities of sodium; and the rise of temperature 
during the last distillation was less than 0T°. The boiling-point was 64'85° at 761'9 
millims. A series of determinations of vapour-pressure at low temperatures was then 
made, and it was decided, before employing the alcohol for determinations of vapour- 
density, to re-distil it. It boiled at 64 , 95°, under the same pressure, 761'9 millims. 
Preliminary experiments were then carried out, with a view to determining the 
critical temperature and pressure; but the volume-tube burst, and the experiments 
were delayed until a new volume-tube had been calibrated. As the boiling-point of 
the alcohol was not absolutely constant, it was repeatedly fractionated, and the 
* Parts I. and II. are published in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ for 1886 (Part I.); Part III., 
ibid., 1887; Part IV. is published in tlie ‘ Transactions of the Chemical Society,’ 1886, p. 790; Part VI., 
in the ‘ Phil. Mag.,’ yol. 23, 1887, pp. 435-458 ; vol. 24, 1887, pp. 196-212. 
t See also Addendum at p. 330. 
MDCCCLXXXYII. — A. 2 S 
14.11.87 
