Aug. 20, 1917 



Relation of Soil Water Movement 



393 



from 0.25 to \^ cm. rain, using various soil separates. As may be seen 

 from those of his data assembled in Table I, he did not find any direct 

 relation of the rate and distance of penetration to the fineness of texture. 



Table I. — Rate of capillary movement of water in sands and silts of different diaiTieters, 



as found by Atterberg 



DISTANCE OF PENETRATION WHEN 5 CM. OP WATER WERE ADDED TO THE SURFACE « 



Period. 



Very fine 



sand 



(0.10-0.05 



mm.). 



Coarse silt 



(0.05-0.02 



mm.). 



Fine silt 



(0.02-0.01 



mm.). 



At end of 24 hours . 

 At end of 2 days . . 

 At end of 3 days . . , 

 At end of 4 days . . 



Cm. 

 17.4 

 18.0 

 18.5 



Cm. 

 19. 2 

 20.5 



21. 7 



22. 4 



Cm. 



17. 2 

 18.0 



18. 2 

 18.5 



RISE OF WATER WHEN TUBES FILLED WITH MATERIAL WERE BROUGHT INTO CONTACT 



WITH WATER^ 



At end of 24 hours 

 At end of 2 days . . 

 At end of 3 days . . 

 At end of 4 days . . 

 At end of 5 days . . 

 At end of 18 days. 

 At end of 30 days . 



48.5 



92. 2 



131. 8 



153- 6 

 168.9 

 209. 5 

 244. 7 



■ 4, p. 119-120. 



6 4, p. 108. 



Many studiss of the rate and distance of the upward movement of water 

 have been made, in nearly all cases air-dry materials bemg employed. 

 Among the earliest work on the subject we may mention that of Trommer 

 (16, p. 268), Von Liebenberg (11, p. 22), Von Klenze (9), Edler (7), and 

 Wollny (17). 



Von Liebenberg used the same 22 soils and the same tubes as in the 

 experiment mentioned above, making frequent observations of the rise 

 during the first few hours and then daily for about 30 days, finally deter- 

 mining the distribution of water at intervals of 15 cm. and in the upper- 

 most layer of the moistened portion of the soil column. He concluded 

 that the more "fine earth," especially the more clay and organic matter, 

 a soil contains, the higher is the final elevation attained, but the more 

 slowly it takes place. The rise with the various soils in this experiment 

 showed no definite relation to the penetration with the same soils in the 

 other experiment. 



Von Klenze (9), using glass tubes of an inner diameter of 3.5 cm., ex- 

 perimented with kaolin, peat, quartz, sand, marble dust, a loam, a sandy 

 soil, a sand rich in organic matter and a calcareous sand, making frequent 

 observations during the first 12 hours and after this daily for 9 or 10 days. 

 He concluded that the rate of rise is affected most by the relative fineness 

 of texture, it being slowest in the finest textured materials (9, p. 96-99). 



