152 CHEMISTRY: W. D. HARKINS 
tro-telescope (prism edge) on its axis until the inclinations also coincide. In 
reality the phenomenon is more complicated as the spectrum fringes change 
both size and inclination on rotation of the spectrum. In case of the com- 
pletion of this twofold adjustment the slit of the collimator may be made 
indefinitely wide or removed altogether (undesirable light is to be screened 
off). The spectrum fringes may thus be given any intensity of illumination 
at pleasure, while the wave length corresponding to any fringe may be found 
by narrowing the slit until the Fraunhofer lines reappear. When the fringes 
are small the orientation of the spectro-telescope revolving around its axis 
may be determined by the appearance and evanescence of fringes. On the 
other hand the spectro-fringes, particularly if large, remain clearly enough in 
the field for the observation of the motion of a large number (i.e., for inter- 
ferometry), before they vanish. 
Similar results were obtained in broadening the vertical string of inter- 
ference beads of reversed spectra. An account of these experiments will have 
to be omitted here, as they are much more complicated. 
AN ELECTROMAGNETIC HYPOTHESIS OF THE KINETICS OF 
HETEROGENEOUS EQUILIBRIUM, AND OF THE 
STRUCTURE OF LIQUIDS 
By William D. Harkins ' 
Kent Chemical Laboratory, University of Chicago 
Communicated by J. Stieglitz, March 24, 1919 
While Gibbs,^ in his remarkable treatise *'0n the Equilibrium of Heterog- 
eneous Substances" has given a very broad treatment of his subject from the 
thermodynamic standpoint, nothing is included which would give any idea 
of the probable distribution of a component between a set of phases from a 
knowledge of the properties of only the pure component and of those of the 
phases before any of this component has been added to them. It is the pur- 
pose of this paper to indicate that the general nature of such a distribution 
can be predicted in most cases from the standpoint of the hypothesis that it 
is determined mainly by the intensity and nature of the electromagnetic field 
surrounding the molecules, and by the motion of the molecules and atoms. 
There is considerable evidence that the atom consists of a positively charged 
nucleus surrounded by a system of negative electrons. On such a basis it is 
to be expected that the atom, and therefore the molecule, would be surrounded 
by an electrostatic field. Inasmuch as there is much evidence from the mag- 
netic properties of substances that the electrons are in motion, this is also to 
be considered as a magnetic field. Such a composite field is usually said to 
be electromagnetic.^ 
