120 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



to get the increase of pressure kick as the condenser cools than the 

 decrease of pressure kick as the condenser warms up. It was also ob- 

 served that at the time of the explosion the liquid air in L boiled. 



Gas From Walker Well at Calgary. See CW, Fig. 2. Here, after 

 10 collectors were passed in, the pressure was 35-3 cm. The vacuum 

 pump lowered this to 3 • 1 cm. The liquid air was removed when 

 oscillations were observed at 25, 263/^, 283/2 cm., as the condensate 

 melted. After allowing the pressure to rise to 50 cm. the liquid air 

 was replaced. The final pressure was 16-2 cm., a large increase over 

 the pressure before removing the liquid air. The gas was again 

 pumped off and even after this, on removal of the liquid air, the 

 pressure on rising to 30 cm. kicked back to 20 cm. After another 

 pumping the liquid air was removed and re-applied, and when the 

 pressure had fallen to 4 cm. it suddenly rose to 7 cm., the liquid air 

 in L boiling vigorously at the same time. On the removal of L, I 

 found that the condensate had been violently disturbed before being 

 frozen for the solid was all over the inside of the tube. 



Gas from Bow Island Pipe Line. September 26, 1918. Doing 

 this experiment very carefully, I observed kicks of 14 cm. and in one 

 case after removing the liquid air, the pressure rose to 19 cm., kicked 

 back to 15 cm., rose to 17 cm. and halted and then oscillated three 

 times from 17 cm. back to 15 cm. before, rising further. On replacing 

 the liquid air the pressure fell to 6 cm. and then suddenly rose to 20 

 cm. The observations were repeated over and over again. 



In some ways the sudden solution and expulsion of nitrogen by 

 the liquid methane is very similar to the occlusion and spitting of 

 oxygen by silver. 



Much work on the solution of helium in liquid methane has been 

 done by Professors Cady and Seibel at the University of Kansas, 

 but their results have not yet been published. 



In the design of liquefaction plants attention must be paid to 

 this question. A sudden evolution of gas may upset the balance in 

 the rectifying column, also the solution of helium in the liquid hydro- 

 carbons must greatly impair the efficiency of the extraction process 

 unless the mixed liquids are rectified. This is especially important in 

 the case where the original gas worked on has only a small percentage 

 of helium. 



These results were communicated (in part) to the Admiralty 

 in May, 1916, in a report which I wrote of the work done in Toronto 

 on the Analysis of Natural Gases of Canada for Helium. The work 

 was extended in the following years and I understand the observations 



