Abstract
THE value of this well-known handbook on gas analysis has been increased by additions both by the author and translator, so much so that those who already possess a copy of the first English edition will probably consider it necessary to obtain also the present one. The original work was practically restricted to a description of operations which could be carried out with the apparatus devised by the author, and this character is still retained. The slight incompleteness thus entailed is more than compensated for by the extremely practical nature of the instructions; every process described has been thoroughly tested and will work. The author has found it advisable to abandon the division into technical and exact gas analysis because, as he states in the preface, apparatus originally intended for technical purposes may advantageously be employed for many purely scientific investigations, and, on the other hand, technical analyses must often satisfy the most exacting conditions as to accuracy. The chief additions to the first edition comprise new methods for exact gas analysis and for the determination of combustible gases, the separation of argon from the atmosphere, improved methods for the determination of carbon monoxide in gas mixtures, the analysis of acetylene gas, the examination of gases produced by living bacteria, the simultaneous determination of fluorine and carbon dioxide, the determination of the heating power of gases, the estimation of sulphur in organic bodies and of carbon in steel, and the analysis of the gases evolved in the electrolysis of chlorides and the manufacture of bleaching powder. The method originally adopted by the author for the exact analysis of gases, although accurate, was somewhat cumbersome to work and expensive to set up. By adopting the principle of a compensation tube, slightly modified from the suggestion of Pettersson, the apparatus assumes a very practical form, gaining in convenience and cost without loss of accuracy. The determination of the heating value of gas, a determination which is rapidly increasing in importance on account of the extended use of gas for heating and power purposes and in the Welsbach incandescent burners, has been usually carried out incalorimeters of the Junker type. These are costly, require considerable amounts of gas, and must be carried to the place where the gas is being used. In the ingenious apparatus described by Prof. Hempel, a heating value can be determined on two litres, so that samples of gas can be brought from a distance in metallic receivers and examined in the laboratory.
Methods of Gas Analysis.
By Dr. Walther Hempel. Translated from the third German edition and considerably enlarged by L. M. Dennis. Pp. xix + 490. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1902.) Price 10s. net.
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H., G. Gas Analysis . Nature 67, x (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/06700xa0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/06700xa0