302 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—B. 
adsorbent and adsorbed substance is to be expected—namely, adsorption in porous 
substances with a highly developed ‘ inner surface.’ 
In the new method to be described, advantage has been taken of the long-known 
but little-developed ‘ coherer action ’ that occurs when an electric stress is applied to 
a contact, whose ‘ looseness’ is determined, as has been shown, by a non-conducting 
gas-film separating the two surfaces of contact. : 
The most important application of the method lies in the readiness with which the 
relation between the composition of a mixed gas-film and that of the gas mixture 
producing it can be ascertained. If the ratio of the partial pressures in the gas mixture 
; : Bi Bone eee - a/M. 
is ?! i the ratio of composition in the initial film is 2 Pi / /M; py where M, 
and M, are the molecular weights of the gases. The initial film will not, in general, 
be in equilibrium with the gas mixture: the composition will change until it 
has reached the equilibrium composition given by the ratio / Mp6 
In the majority of the mixtures studied up to the present, this ratio is a constant, 
independent of composition. When it is not so, complexes containing the two 
molecules intimately bound together on the surface have to be assumed. These 
complexes are undoubtedly the precursors of a catalytic combination or interaction 
of the two gases. 
Coherer action is of precisely the same character when the contact is immersed in 
liquids. A study of the effect of mixed liquids in relation to the known surface energies 
and capillary activities will probably be of interest, but this part of the work has only 
just been started. 
2. Mr. E. A. Ottarp.—The Resistance to Corrosion of Electro-Deposited 
Chromium. 
3. Dr. F. M. Perxin.—Advances in the Treatment of Peat as a Fuel 
and the Production of By-products. 
4, Prof. H. E. Frerz.—The Distillation of Cellulose and Similar 
Substances in the presence of Catalysts under High Hydrogen 
Pressure. 
Cellulose, wood and starch can be distilled completely when mixed with sufficient 
nickel oxide and heated in hydrogen under a pressure of 100-250 atmospheres. 
Without pressure, and in the presence of only a small amount of nickel oxide, no result 
could be obtained. The best conditions were found to be 80 grams of nickel oxide 
and 500 grams of cellulose (wood, starch, sugar or lignin may also be used). 
In the apparatus described pressures up to 4,000 atmospheres may be employed. 
The products of distillation are very complex, consisting of about 30 per cent. 
clear mobile tar (ca. 9,000 calories), 30 per cent. of gas, and 40 per cent. of water. 
Analyses showed that practically no hydrogenation takes place. The tar contains 
20 per cent. of phenols, 5 per cent. of lower fatty acids, and 70 per cent. of neutral 
compounds (furane and its homologues). In addition, there have been isolated 
small quantities of ketones, diketones, alcohols, and glycols, such as methyl, ethyl, and 
propyl alcohols, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, and a cyclo pentane diglyccl. The 
residue remaining after the distillation was less than 2 per cent. of the cellulose 
employed. 
Wood and lignin under similar conditions give a higher proportion of phenols 
and a lower proportion of neutral compounds than cellulose, whilst sugar and starch 
behave like cellulose. No conclusions with regard to the constitutions of the starting 
materials should be drawn from these experiments as the method of distillation is — 
very drastic. It is, however, interesting that very large quantities of furanes are 
formed, since these occur also in ordinary wood tar, but have been overlooked pre- 
viously because the products have always been purified by means of concentrated 
sulphuric acid which destroys the furanes. 
/ a/Mipoo2. - 
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