EXERCISE No. 57 

 RATE OF PERCOLATION 



Object : To show the rate of percolation of water through 

 fine textured and coarse textured soils. 



Material : A very fine sand, a coarse sand, two funnels or 

 percolators. 



Method: Place the samples of each of the sands in the 

 different percolators, filling them to a height of about six 

 inches. Invert over each funnel a bottle full of water, 

 arranging the bottles so that an equal head of water will be 

 maintained above the top of the sand in each percolator. As 

 soon as the water is running steadily in each through the 

 sands, place beakers under each percolator and note the 

 time this is done. At the end of a given time, remove the 

 beakers and measure each by the quantity of water that is 

 run through a 100 cc. graduate. Calculate the rate of 

 flow of water in cubic centimeters per second. 



Conclusion: What is the influence of the size of the soil 

 grains on the amount of percolating water? Is leaching a 

 more important problem on coarse grained or on fine grained 

 soil?... 



