Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/77

Rh CAPILLARY ACTION 65 Dther, it will run towards that part where the glass plates are nearest together. When the liquid is in equilibrium it forms a thin film, the outer edge of which is all of the same thickness. If d is the distance between the plates at the edge of the film and II the atmospheric pressure, the 2T cos. a pressure of the liquid in the film is II : &amp;gt; and if ct A is the area of the film between the plates and B its cir cumference, the plates will be pressed together with a force 2ATcos_a. -5 +BT sm. a, a aud this, whether the atmosphere exerts any pressure or not. The force thus produced by the introduction of a drop of water between two plates is enormous, and is often sufficient to press certain parts of the plates together so powerfully as to bruise them or break them. When two blocks of ice are placed loosely together so that the superfluous water which melts from them may drain away, the remaining water draws the blocks together with a force sufficient to cause the blocks to adhere by the process called Regelation. In many experiments bodies are floated on the surface of water in order that they may be free to move under the action of slight horizontal forces. Thus Newton placed a magnet in a floating vessel and a piece of iron in another in order to observe their mutual action, and Ampere floated a voltaic battery with a coil of wire in its circuit in order to observe the effects of the earth s magnetism on the electric circuit. When such floating bodies come near the edge of the vessel they ar3 drawn up to it, and are apt to stick fast to it. There are two ways of avoiding this inconvenience. One is to grease the float round its water-line so that the water is depressed round it. This, however, often produces a worse disturbing effect, because a thin film of grease spreads over the water and increases its surface-viscosity. The other method is to fill the vessel with water till the level of the water stands a little higher than the rim of the vessel. The float will then be repelled from the edge of the vessel. Such floats, however, should always be made so that the section taken at the level of the water is as small as possible. PHENOMENA ARISING FROM THE VARIATION OF THE SURFACE-TENSION. Pure water has a higher surface-tension than that of any other substance liquid at ordinary temperatures except mercury. Hence any other liquid if mixed with water diminishes its surface-tension. For example, if a drop of alcohol be placed on the surface of water, the surface- tension will be diminished from 80, the value for pure water, to 25, the value for pure alcohol. The surface of the liquid will therefore no longer be in equilibrium, and a current will be formed at and near the surface from the alcohol to the surrounding water, and this current will go on as long as there is more alcohol at one part of the surface than at another. If the vessel is deep, these cur rents will be balanced by counter currents below them, but if the depth of the water is only two or three millimetres, the surface-current will sweep away the whole of the water, leaving a dry spot where the alcohol was dropped in. This phenomenon was first described and explained by Professor James Thomson, who also explained a pheno menon, the converse of this, called the &quot; tears of strong wine.&quot; If a wine glass be half -filled with port wine the liquid rises a little up the side of the glass as other liquids do. The wine, however, contains alcohol and water, both of which evaporate, but the alcohol faster than the water, so that the superficial layer becomes more watery. In the middle of the vessel the superficial layer recovers its strength by diffusion from below, but the film adhering to the side of the glass becomes more watery, and there fore has a higher surface-tension than the surface of the stronger wine. It therefore creeps up the side of the glass dragging the strong wine after it, and this goes on till the quantity of fluid dragged up collects into a drop and runs down the side of the glass. The motion of small pieces of camphor floating on water arises from the gradual solution of the camphor. If this takes place more rapidly on one side of the piece of camphor than on the other side, the surface-tension becomes weaker where there is most camphor in solution, and the lump, being pulled unequally by the surface-tensions, moves off in the direction of the strongest tension, namely, towards the side on which least camphor is dissolved. If a drop of ether is held near the surface of water the vapour of ether condenses on the surface of the water, and surface-currents are formed flowing in every direction away from under the drop of ether. If we place a small floating body in a shallow vessel of water and wet one side of it with alcohol or ether, it will move off with great velocity and skim about on the surface of the water, the part wet with alcohol being always the stern. The surface-tension of mercury is greatly altered by slight changes in the state of the surface. The surface-tension of pure mercury is so great that it is very difficult to keep it clean, for every kind of oil or grease spreads over it at once. But the most remarkable effects of change of surface- tension are those produced by what is called the electric polarization of the surface. The tension of the surface of contact of mercury and dilute sulphuric acid depends on the electromotive force acting between the mercury and the acid. If the electromotive force is from the acid to the mercury the surface-tension increases ; if it is from the mercury to the acid, it diminishes. Faraday observed that a large drop of mercury, resting on the flat bottom of a vessel containing dilute acid, changes its form in a remarkable way when connected with one of the electrodes of a battery, the other electrode being placed in the acid. When the mercury is made positive it becomes dull and spreads itself out ; when it is made negative it gathers itself together and becomes bright again. M. Lippmann, who has made a careful investigation of the subject, finds that exceedingly small variations of the electromotive force produce sensible changes in the surface- tension. The effect of one of a DanielPs cell is to increase the tension from 30 - -i to 40 6. He has constructed a capil lary electrometer by which differences of electric potential less than O Ol of that of a DanielPs cell can be detected by the difference of the pressure required to force the mercury to a given point of a fine capillary tube. He has also constructed an apparatus in which this variation in the surface-tension is made to do work and drive a machine. He has also found that this action is reversible, for when the area of the surface of contact of the acid and mercury is made to increase, an electric current passes from the mercury to the acid, the amount of electricity which passes while the surface increases by one square centimetre being sufficient to decompose -000013 grammes of water. ON THE FORMS OF LlQUID FlLMS WHICH ARE FIGURES OF REVOLUTION. A spherical Soap-biibUe. A soap-bubble is simply a small quantity of soap-snd? spread out so as to expose a large surface to the air. Tht 1 bubble, in fact, has two surfaces, an outer and an inner surface, both exposed to air. It has, therefore, a certain amount of surface-energy depending on the area of thesj V. 9