Note 37 — Chapter III · OXYGEN AND THE CHIEF ASPECTS OF ITS SALINE COMBINATIONS

Fig. 33.—Favre and Silbermann's calorimeter for determining the heat evolved in combustion.

The amount of heat evolved in the combustion of a known weight (for instance, 1 gram) of a given substance is determined by the rise in temperature of water, to which the whole of the heat evolved in the combustion is transmitted. A calorimeter, for example that shown in fig. 33, is employed for this purpose. It consists of a thin (in order that it may absorb less heat), polished (that it should transmit a minimum of heat) metallic vessel, surrounded by down (c), or some other bad conductor of heat, and an outer metallic vessel. This is necessary in order that the least possible amount of heat should be lost from the vessels; nevertheless, there is always a certain loss, whose magnitude is determined by preliminary experiment (by taking warm water, and determining its fall in temperature after a definite period of time) as a correction for the results of observations. The water to which the heat of the burning substance is transmitted is poured into the vessel. The stirrer g allows of all the layers of water being brought to the same temperature, and the thermometer serves for the determination of the temperature of the water. The heat evolved passes, naturally, not to the water only, but to all the parts of the apparatus. The quantity of water corresponding to the whole amount of those objects (the vessels, tubes, &c.) to which the heat is transmitted is previously determined, and in this manner another most important correction is made in the calorimetric determinations. The combustion itself is carried on in the vessel a. The ignited substance is introduced through the tube at the top, which closes tightly. In fig. 33 the apparatus is arranged for the combustion of a gas, introduced by a tube. The oxygen required for the combustion is led into a by the tube e, and the products of combustion either remain in the vessel a (if liquid or solid), or escape by the tube f into an apparatus in which their quantity and properties can easily be determined. Thus the heat evolved in combustion passes to the walls of the vessel a, and to the gases which are formed in it, and these transmit it to the water of the calorimeter.