The second column expresses the pressures given as the fluid was raised from low to higher temperatures. The third column shows the pressures given the next day with the same tube after it had attained to and continued at the atmospheric temperature for some hours. There is a difference of four or five atmospheres between the two, showing that in the first instance the previous low temperature had caused the solution of a more volatile part in the less volatile and liquid portion, and that the prolonged application of a higher temperature during the night had gradually raised it again in vapour. This result occurred again and again with the same specimen[1].
Cyanogen.—This substance becomes a solid transparent crystalline body, as Bunsen has already stated [2], which raised to the temperature of - 30° Fahr. then liquefies. The solid and liquid appear to be nearly of the same specific gravity, but the solid is perhaps the denser of the two. The mixed solid and liquid substance yields a vapour of rather less pressure than one atmosphere. In accordance with this result, if the liquid be exposed to the air, it does not freeze itself as carbonic acid does.
The liquid tends to distil over and condense on the cap cement and bitumen of the gauge, but only slightly. When cyanogen is made from cyanide of mercury sealed up hermetically in a glass tube, the cyanogen distils back and condenses in the paracyanic residue of the distillation; but the pressure of the vapour at common temperatures is still as great, or very nearly so, as if the cyanogen were in a clean separate liquid state.
A measured portion of liquid cyanogen was allowed to escape and expand into gas. In this way one volume of liquid at the temperature of 63° Fahr. gave 393.9 volumes of gas at the same temperature and the barometric pressure of 30.2 inches. If 100 cubic inches of the gas be admitted to weigh
- ↑ This substance is one of those which I liquefied in 1823 (see Philosophical Transactions). Since writing the above, I perceive that M. Natterer has condensed it into the liquid state by the use of pumps only (see Comptes Rendus, 1844, Nov. 18, p. 1111), and obtained the liquid in considerable quantities. The non-solidification of it by exposure to the air perfectly accords with my own results.
- ↑ Bibliothéque Universelle, 1839, p. 184.
