Abstract
EXISTING data on the refractivity of dry air as determined by various observers show disagreements which are larger than the errors which seem probable in many of the recent measurements. The constancy of composition of the atmosphere at the earth's surface has been repeatedly questioned and the use of dry air free from carbon dioxide is being abandoned1 as a standard reference medium for specific gravities of gases, because it is too variable in its normal density.
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References
Landolt-Börnstein, “Pysikalisch-Chemische Tabellen”, Erster Ergänzungsband, 160–163; 1927.
The Landolt-Börnstein “Tabellen”, (5th edition) list many of the results. Other sources are: V. Posejpal, Ann. Phys., (4), 83, 629–646; 1917. V. Posejpal, J. Phys., (16), 2, 85–92; 1921. A. Pérard, Procés-Verbaux des Séances, x, 16; 1923. A. Zwetsch, Z. Phys., 19, 398–413; 1923. Tausz und Görlacher, Z. tech. Phys., 12, 19–24; 1931. Sears and Barrell, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., A, 231, 126–127; 1932. Kösters and Lampe, result obtained in 1932 at the Phys. Techn. Reichsanstalt and privately communicated to me. C. G. Peters, unpublished result obtained in 1917 at the U.S. Bureau of Standards with apparatus different from that used by Meggers and Peters.
Ellsworth Huntington, “Earth and Sun”, p. 29, Yale University Press, 1923.
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TILTON, L. Sunspot Number and the Refractivity of Dry Air*. Nature 132, 855 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132855a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132855a0
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