The atomic weight of chlorine: an attempt to determine the equivalent of chlorine by direct burning with hydrogen

Abstract

Although the atomic weight of chlorine has been determined by Stas and other chemists with extraordinary care, nevertheless owing to the very indirect methods hitherto used in making the comparison between chlorine and hydrogen, it is possible that a, constant error may occur in some link of the long chain of connecting ratios. To join up the open ends of the chain by a direct comparison between chlorine and hydrogen, if it could be done with reasonable accuracy, would serve not only to detect any such systematic error, but would permit the accidental errors to be distributed and prevent their accumulation at the unconnected end. According to Professor F. W. Clarke the accumulated “probable error” in his recalculated value for chlorine amounts to ±0·0048; the probable error of the mean of our nine determina­tions is less than ±0·002. It was at the suggestion of Professor E. W. Morley, of Cleveland, U. S. A., that we have attempted this direct comparison by determining the weight of hydrogen which burns in a known weight of chlorine.