Note 23 — Chapter I · ON WATER AND ITS COMPOUNDS

Beilby (1883) experimented on paraffin, and found that one litre of solid paraffin at 21° weighed 874 grams, and when liquid, at its melting-point 38°, 783 grams, at 49°, 775 grams, and at 60°, 767 grams, from which the weight of a litre of liquefied paraffin would be 795·4 grams at 21° if it could remain liquid at that temperature. By dissolving solid paraffin in lubricating oil at 21° Beilby found that 795·6 grams occupy one cubic decimetre, from which he concluded that the solution contained liquefied paraffin.