Unpublished paper, 'Researches upon the specific volumes of liquids. I - On the atomic value of phosphorus' by T E [Thomas Edward] Thorpe

Description

Thorpe suggests that the results of the observations made by Pierre and Kopp upon the boiling points, specific gravities, and thermal expansibilities of the trichlorides and tribromides of phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony have led Kopp to suppose that the specific volumes of phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony, in their liquid combinations, may be identical. The same conclusion has been drawn with respect to tin, titanium, and silicon from Pierre’s observations upon the tetrachlorides of these elements. The common value of P, As, and Sb would appear to be about 27; that of Si, Ti, and Sn about 35. But on examining the details of the observations, it becomes evident that this conclusion is not strictly borne out of the results; the numbers obtained for the individual members of the group differ in many cases considerably from the common value, the divergences being far wider than could arise from errors of observation either in the determination of the physical constants or in the estimation of the atomic weights of the constituent bodies. In fact the order of the divergences would seem to render it probable that the specific volumes of the several members of a family of elements increase with their atomic weights.

Marked on front as 'Withdrawn'.

Subject: Chemistry

Received 2 March 1875. Read 15 April 1875. Communicated by A W [Alexander William] Williamson.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 24 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'Researches upon the specific volumes of liquids'.

Reference number

AP/58/6

Earliest possible date

1875

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil on paper

Page extent

23 pages

Format

Manuscript