54 J. C. Graham — Experiments %oith an Artificial Geyser. 



Art. V. — Some Experiments with an Artificial Geyser ; 

 by James C. Graham. 



As a result of observations during bis travels in Iceland in 

 tbe summer of 1846, Professor Bunsen advanced tbe explana- 

 tion* of tbe eruptions of the Great Geyser which has been 

 almost universally accepted since then. In 1847,+ there ap- 

 peared an article in which Professor Bunsen's views were dis- 

 puted and it was in answer to this article that Professor 

 Miiller published in 1850 the first account of which I can find 

 any record, of experiments with an artificial geyser.;}; Since 

 that date artificial geysers have been often 

 constructed and exhibited, the most com- 

 plete descriptions in English of such gey- 

 sers, being found in Professor Tynd all's 

 " Heat as a mode of Motion " (Appleton, 

 1865, p. 139) and in a description of 

 Miiller's experiments in Hayden's Report 

 for 1878 of the U. S. Geological Survey 

 (p. 420). 



In all of these experiments, however, 

 the artificial geyser has not been con- 

 structed to explain geyser phenomena in 

 general but has been restricted to an 

 imitation of the Great Geyser of Iceland. 

 This geyser is peculiar in having the boil- 

 ing point reached first, not at the base 

 of the tube or throat, but at a position 

 considerably above this. It is doubtful if 

 this peculiarity has been repeated in any 

 geyser which has been elsewhere studied. 

 In my work, therefore, I have not applied 

 heat at an intermediate point of the tube, 

 but only at the base. The description of 

 my apparatus is as follows : 



It consists (fig. 1) of a glass tube, fi, 

 surmounted by a funnel, g, and terminat- 

 ing in an iron cylinder, a. This cylinder 

 is immersed (to the line h) in a bath of mercury contained 

 in another iron cylinder, h ; c and cl are thermometers, regis- 

 tering the temperature of the mercury and of the geyser fiuid 

 respectively; e is a mercury gas-cock, so arranged that an 



* Poggendorff, vol. lxxii, p. 1 59. 



f Die Fortschritten der Physik irn Jahre, 1847, dargestellt von der physikal- 

 ischen Gesellschaf t zu Berlin, p. 92. 

 % Poggendorff, vol. lxxix, p. 350, 1850. 



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