Note 16 — PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY INTRODUCTION

Gases, like all other substances, may be weighed, but, owing to their extreme lightness and the difficulty of dealing with them in large masses, they can only be weighed by very sensitive balances; that is, in such as, with a considerable load, indicate a very small difference in weight—for example, a centigram or a milligram with a load of 1,000 grams. In order to weigh a gas, a glass globe furnished with a tight-fitting stop-cock is first of all exhausted of air by an air-pump (a Sprengel pump is the best). The stop-cock is then closed, and the exhausted globe weighed. If the gas to be weighed is then let into the globe, its weight can be determined from the increase in the weight of the globe. It is necessary, however, that the temperature and pressure of the air about the balance should remain constant for both weighings, as the weight of the globe in air will (according to the laws of hydrostatics) vary with its density. The volume of the air displaced, and its weight, must therefore be determined by observing the temperature, density, and moisture of the atmosphere during the time of experiment. This will be partly explained later, but may be studied more in detail by physics. Owing to the complexity of all these operations, the mass of a gas is usually determined from its volume and density, or from the weight of a known volume.