Rate of Solution of Nitrogen and Oxyyen by Water. 317 



In general 



= 361;Z8o7 + -OO1628dN±-OO38, 

 for Ag, 8=421-0470 -h-001894^Nzb-0045. 



It is important to note that, if: atomic weights in terms of: 

 Ag are determined from the oun, the values are independent 

 of the actual N used, provided it can be taken as the same 

 for all elements. Thev should be calculated, therefore, either 

 with N = 109675 if in'R.A., or IO^S-d* if in I.A. and the 

 value g = 361'7837±-0038 used. 



The University, Sheffield, 

 May 14/1919. 



XXVIII. The Determination of the Rate of Solution of Atmo- 

 spheric Nitrogen and Oxygen by Water. Part I. By 

 W. E. Adeney, D.Sc, AM.C.Sc.L, F.I.C., Acting Pro- 

 fessor of Chemistry in the Royal College of Science for 

 Ireland] and H. G. Becker, A.R.C.Sc.I., Research 

 Student *. 



[Plate V.J 



IT has been commonly assumed that a quiescent body of 

 water, when exposed to the air, after being wholly or 

 martially 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 |. 



One of the authors some years ago communicated to this 

 Society, in a paper entitled " Unrecognized Factors in the 

 Transmission of Gases through Water/' J the results of some 

 preliminary experiments, which showed that, as nitrogen and 

 oxygen are dissolved at the exposed surface of a quiescent 

 body of de-aerated water, the dissolved gases do not remain 

 concentrated in the surface layer, but are gravitationallv 

 drawn downwards through the lower layers of the water with 



* Reprinted, by permission, from the Sci. Proc. of the Royal Dublin 

 •Society, vol. xv. (n. S.) No. 31, 1918. 

 t See ' Solutions,' bv Ostwald, p. 10. 

 T Trans. Roy. DubL Soc. 1914 ; also Phil. Mag-. March 1905. 



Phil. Mag. S. 6. Vol. 38. No. 225. Sept. 1919. Z 



