E 161 J 
XITI. 
UNRECOGNISED FACTORS IN THE TRANSMISSION OF GASES THROUGH 
WATER. 
By W. E. ADENEY, D.Sc., 
Curator and Examiner in Chemistry in the Royal University of Ireland. 
[Read, December 20, 1904; Published, Frsrvary 20, 1905. | 
Tne question of the possibility of atmospheric gases being transmitted through 
water by any process other than that of diffusion, or by thermal currents, or 
mixing, does not appear to have been considered. 
Hiifner* found, in his work on the diffusion coefficients of gases in water, 
that, if a gas be placed above the liquid, the phenomenon of diffusion is disturbed 
by downward streaming effects through the water. He explains these as being 
caused by the water becoming heavier as it dissolves the gas, and sinking to the 
bottom. 
Hiifner, in order to avoid this streaming effect, employed a thin plate of the 
porous mineral hydrophane to hold up a column of water in an experimental 
tube, and so provided the means of introducing the gas at the bottom of the water, 
and of studying the upward diffusion of the gas. 
The author has met with this downward streaming in the course of some 
experiments recently made upon the solution of atmospheric gases by water. It 
did not, however, appear to him that the cause of the streaming, as suggested by 
Hiifner, offered a wholly satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon observed. 
He accordingly thought that a careful investigation of this streaming effect might 
be followed by results of some value. 
MetHop or EXPERIMENT. 
Glass tubes, about two metres long and 18 mm. bore, were employed for all 
the experiments to be described, except for a few preliminary ones. The 
dimensions of these will be given with the descriptions of the experiments. 
The tubes were nearly filled either with distilled water or with sea-water, 
and warmed and exhausted, as far as desirable, by means of a mercury-pump. 
The corks closing the lower ends of the tubes were fitted with fine glass 
capillary tubes, to provide the means of attachment to the mercury-pump for 
exhaustion, and for drawing off samples. 
* Ann. Phys. Chem., 1897 (11), vol. tx., pp. 134-168. 
TRANS, ROY. DUB. SOC., N.S., VOL. VIII., PART XIII. 2F 
