Thermodynamics has, in fact, allowed
us to obtain numerical relations between the various coefficients, and
atomic hypotheses have led to the establishment of one capital
relation, the characteristic equation of fluids; while, on the other
hand, experiment in which the progress made in the art of measurement
has been utilized, has furnished the most valuable information on all
the laws of compressibility and dilatation.
The classical work of Andrews was not very wide. Andrews did not go
much beyond pressures close to the normal and ordinary temperatures.
Of late years several very interesting and peculiar cases have been
examined by MM. Cailletet, Mathias, Batelli, Leduc, P. Chappuis, and
other physicists. Sir W. Ramsay and Mr S. Young have made known the
isothermal diagrams[6] of a certain number of liquid bodies at the
ordinary temperature. They have thus been able, while keeping to
somewhat restricted limits of temperature and pressure, to touch upon
the most important questions, since they found themselves in the
region of the saturation curve and of the critical point.
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