Paper, 'On the experimental determination of the index of refraction of liquefied gases' by L Bleekrode

Description

Bleekrode writes: 'On a previous occasion I had the honour to present to the Royal Society some results of an investigation made about electrical conductivity of chemical compounds ['On electrical conductivity and electrolysis in chemical compounds', Proceedings of the Royal Society, volume 25], and I then chiefly examined the liquefied gases, pointing them out as very bad conductors. I have since been engaged in studying another property of these substances, and I have succeeded in determining in an experimental way their refractive power. As in England and abroad several papers have been subsequently published bearing on the relation between the liquid and gaseous conduction of matter, and especially liquefied gases present themselves well adapted to this kind of research, I hope the Royal Society will consider my paper not devoid of interest, the more so because our knowledge of their physical constants is somewhat limited. And though we possess numerous determinations of the refractive power of a vast number of chemical compounds, still increasing daily, I have found only very little information concerning my subject, this being limited to sulphurous and prussic acid, that are readily liquefied by cold and present no difficulty in manipulating. Faraday in his extensive paper on liquefied gases, published in 1823, when describing the properties of several of them, compares only their index of refraction to that of water, calling it more or less, and Brewster in 1826 mentioned in a communication to the Society of Edinburgh the index of refraction of liquefied cyanogen as 1.316, but without any remarks on the manner in which it was deduced. I will commence this paper by describing the method I followed to obtain the numerical values of the index, of refraction of several gases, liquefied either by pressure or by cold, and that enabled me to surmount the difficulties resulting from high tensions and small quantities of fluid substance, that may perhaps have kept back other experimenters from this field of research.'

Annotations in pencil and ink.

Subject: Chemistry

Received and read 19 June 1884. Communicated by [John Hall] Gladstone.


A version of this paper was published in volume 37 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On the experimental determination of the index of refraction of liquefied gases'.

Reference number

PP/5/24

Earliest possible date

1884

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil on paper

Page extent

44 pages

Format

Manuscript