Gas imperfection data provide information for the correct calculation of many thermodynamic quantities when such accuracy is required that the approximation pV = RT cannot be employed. Considerable data are available for high pressures, but the low-pressure range has received comparatively little attention. There has been some work done on lowpressure data of state for molecular compounds (e.g., 8,9, 16,22,33) and for the elementary gases utilized in gas thermometry (12). Recent theoretical work (4, 10, 13, 17) in quantum and statistical mechanics has given rise to methods whereby the second virial and its temperature coefficient may be calculated, providing the law of molecular force is known; however, for complex polymolecular compounds the subject is not in an advanced stage.A gas imperfection study has been undertaken over a temperature range for seven hydrocarbons: namely, ethene, propene, propadiene, 2-methylpropene, 1-butene, trans-2-butene, and cis-8butene. This provides an unusually interesting group, since it contains members of an homologous series four of which are isomers, two being of a simple cis-trans type.
EXPERIMENTAL PARTThe method of gas density measurement at 0°C. developed for the evaluation of atomic weights was extended so that a range of -80" to +SOT. could be covered. This method consists in filling an evacuated globe of known internal volume with the gas under measured conditions of pressure and temperature, the mass of the contained gas being determined by the difference in weight of the evacuated and filled globe, making use of an almost identical counterpoise in the weighing process. The four quantities involved in the determination, u, p , T , and m, which are, respectively, the specific internal volume of the globe in cubic centimeters, the pressure in millimeters of mercury, the temperature in OK., and the mass of the contained gas in grams, are capable of being measured with Prescnt address: Stanolind Oil and Gas Company, Tulsa, Oklahoma 835