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XXXI. 



THE DETERMINATION OF THE RATE OF SOLUTION OF 

 ATMOSPHERIC NITROGEN AND OXYGEN BY WATER. 



Part I. 



By W. E. ADENEY, D.Sc, A.R.C.Sc.L, F.I.C., 

 Acting Professor of Chemistry in the Royal College of Science for Ireland ; 



AND 



H. G. BECKER, A.R.C.Sc.L, 

 Research Student. 



(Plate XXI.) 



[Read May 28 : published August 14, 191S.] 



It has been commonly assumed that a quiescent body of water, when exposed 

 to the air, after being wholly or partially deprived of its full air-content from 

 any cause, becomes re-saturated with nitrogen and oxygen by two distinct 

 processes — (1) a rapid process of solution by the surface layer of as much of 

 the gases as possible, under the prevailing conditions ; and (2) an extremely 

 slow process of diffusion of the dissolved gases through the mass of the water 

 below the surface layer. 1 



One of the authors some years ago communicated to this Society, in a 

 paper entitled " Unrecognized Factors in the Transmission of Gases through 

 Water," 2 the results of some preliminary experiments, which showed that, as 

 nitrogen and oxygen are dissolved at the exposed surface of a quiescent 

 body of re-aerated water, the dissolved gases do not remain concentrated in 

 the surface layer, but are gravitationally drawn downwards through the 

 lower layers of the water with comparative rapidity ; and that this downward 

 " streaming " process, as Huefner 3 had termed it, must be regarded as of great 

 practical importance in such public health questions as the protection of 

 water-ways from the danger of fouling by sewage matter ; and in industrial 

 processes, such as brewing; and of such magnitude that the effects of ordinary 

 diffusion may, in comparison, be entirely neglected. 



1 See " Solutions," by Ostwald, p. 10. 



2 Trans. Roy. Dubl. Soc, 1914 ; also Phil. Mag., March, 1905. 



3 Ann. Phys. Chem. (11), vol. ix, pp. 134-168. 1897. 



SOIENT. PEOO. E.D.S., VOL. XV., NO. XXXI. 3 Q 



