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    This document summarizes an experiment conducted by T.W. Richards and L.B. Coombs to more accurately determine the surface tension of liquids. They improved on previous methods by carefully calibrating and selecting capillary tubes, precisely measuring meniscus positions, and eliminating errors from tube irregularities. Their preliminary results provide surface tension values for several substances, including water, benzene, toluene, and alcohols, which are generally higher than past studies due to correcting previously overlooked sources of error.

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    Early Journal Content On JSTOR, Free To Anyone in The World

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    This document summarizes an experiment conducted by T.W. Richards and L.B. Coombs to more accurately determine the surface tension of liquids. They improved on previous methods by carefully calibrating and selecting capillary tubes, precisely measuring meniscus positions, and eliminating errors from tube irregularities. Their preliminary results provide surface tension values for several substances, including water, benzene, toluene, and alcohols, which are generally higher than past studies due to correcting previously overlooked sources of error.

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    This document summarizes an experiment conducted by T.W. Richards and L.B. Coombs to more accurately determine the surface tension of liquids. They improved on previous methods by carefully calibrating and selecting capillary tubes, precisely measuring meniscus positions, and eliminating errors from tube irregularities. Their preliminary results provide surface tension values for several substances, including water, benzene, toluene, and alcohols, which are generally higher than past studies due to correcting previously overlooked sources of error.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    35 views5 pages

    Early Journal Content On JSTOR, Free To Anyone in The World

    Uploaded by

    soumengoswami10
    This document summarizes an experiment conducted by T.W. Richards and L.B. Coombs to more accurately determine the surface tension of liquids. They improved on previous methods by carefully calibrating and selecting capillary tubes, precisely measuring meniscus positions, and eliminating errors from tube irregularities. Their preliminary results provide surface tension values for several substances, including water, benzene, toluene, and alcohols, which are generally higher than past studies due to correcting previously overlooked sources of error.

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    404 CHEMISTRY: RICHARDS AND COOMBS

    THE DETERMINATION OF SURFACE-TENSION


    By T. W. Richards and L. B. Coombs
    WOLCOTT GIBBS MEMORIALLABORATORY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
    Received, May 20, 1915

    This investigation is part of a series of investigations having for their


    object the study of the fundamental properties of liquids. It is hoped
    that, when a number of these properties have been determined with
    great accuracy, the essential relations between them may be discovered
    with greater certainty than is possible at present.
    Among the significant properties of liquids surface-tension stands out
    as one of the most interesting. This somewhat unfortunately named
    property affords us a valuable clue concerning the cohesive forces which
    bind the substance together and cause it to become a liquid. Therefore,
    its exact determination is a matter of far-reaching importance to any-
    one who seeks to understand the fundamental nature of the liquid state.
    A glance at the published data concerning surface-tension leads one
    to conclude that much remains to be done. For example, the values
    obtained by experienced men for water at 20? vary all the way from 70.6
    to 78, according to different methods. Even a single method (for ex-
    ample, that of the rise in capillary tubes) has yielded results in the last
    twenty-five years varying from 70.6 to 72.7, and no satisfactory evidence
    is forthcoming as to the reasons for the difference.
    It seemed therefore worth while not only to study the surface-tension
    of a variety of new liquids, but also to discover the reason for the diver-
    gences between different methods, and to obtain results of absolute as
    well as of relative accuracy for liquids already studied. The present
    work, although only preliminary, seems to have been successful in lo-
    cating several of the heretofore not adequately heeded sources of error.
    The method chosen was the well known method of capillary rise in
    carefully measured tubes, because this method seems to be one of the
    most direct and least likely to lead to insoluble mathematical compli-
    cations. The method has been used by many experimenters in the past.
    Several features of the present work deserve emphasis. fn the first
    place, the careful selection of the capillary tubes and the calibration by
    means of short columns of mercury received especial attention. Cor-
    rection was made for the meniscuses of these columns in determining
    the exact diameter of the tube. Again, great care was taken to'de-
    termine exactly the position of the meniscuses, both of the larger and of
    the smaller surface, by means of a finely adjustable black screen behind
    the tubes to be measured. It was found that the exact position was
    CHEMISTRY: RICHARDS AND COOMBS 405

    only to be observed when the meniscus appeared to be precisely tangent


    to the edge of the screen.
    Both of these precautions have been more or less fully heeded by
    others; but another precaution, the determination of the diameter neces-
    sary for the larger tube in order to secure perfectly flat surface, has been
    often overlooked. We found that a tube over 35 mm. in diameter was
    required, and that even into this wide tube it
    was not permissible to insert a capillary; for such
    an insertion acted as another basis of support for
    the liquid and caused appreciable rise. By ac-
    tual measurement we found that the capillary
    rise in a 20 mm. tube, counting only from the
    middle of the bottom of the meniscus, was over
    0.5 mm., and the addition of a capillary tube in
    the middle of this raised it at least 0.3 mm. more.
    As apparatus of this sort has been used by most
    experimenters on surface-tension, most of the
    capillary rises which have been reported are in
    the neighborhod of 1 mm. too low-an error
    which accounts for a large part of the discrepan-
    cies between different methods.
    Another error which does not seem to have
    received sufficient attention is that due to the
    weight of the liquid in the finer meniscus above
    its lowest point. The equation of Poisson, which
    is usually used for calculating this weight, gives
    an absurd result with tubes as wide as 1 cm.,
    and therefore must be rejected. Another equa-
    tion, that of Desains, gives a result for fine tubes,
    which is not plausible; hence this also seemed un- APPARATUS IN DIA-
    worthy of confidence. A careful measure of the GRAMMATIC SECTION.
    (THE LOADED SINKER IS
    height of the meniscus between its lowest point TODIMINISH THENECES-
    and its line of contact with the fully wetted walls ARIY VOL ME OF
    showed that in very fine tubes this height is al-
    most exactly equal to the radius, and that, therefore, the meniscus is
    here essentially hemispherical. As the tube widens, the hemisphere be-
    comes somewhat flattened, and for moderate radii it appears
    entirely
    safe to apply, as a correction to be added on account of the menis-
    cus, one-third of the meniscus height as actually measured. This
    method of correction was shown to give consistent results with tubes of
    different diameters.
    406 CHEMISTRY: RICHARDS AND COOMBS

    Great difficulty and considerable liability for error were found in the
    inequalities of the glass of the tubes to be measured. Accordingly all
    measurements were made in reversible apparatus of the type shown in
    the diagram. This form of apparatus when exactly half filled with
    liquid is observed, first in an uprightposition in front and behind, and
    again in an inverted position in front and behind. Thus from the av-
    erage, all the displacements due to refraction of irregular walls of the
    larger tube are entirely eliminated. The regularity of the walls of the
    smaller tube are tested by the calibration in the first place.
    The preliminary results thus obtained are recorded in the table given
    below. All the measurements were made in the presence of air. The
    surface-tensions are calculated according to the well known equation
    -y == rhg (s, - S2) in which the angle of contact of the meniscus in the
    tube is assumed to be zero.

    CAPILLARY CONSTANTS AND SURFACE TENSIONS


    Data obtained with Apparatus III (20.00?)
    Radius of capillary = 1.0099 mm.
    BUItFACE
    AVERAGE CORRECTION CORRECTED CAPILLARY TENSI
    DENSI `Y
    DEN,SIT TENSION
    SUBSTANCE HEIGHT FOR SMALL HEIGHT IN " 0 CONSTANT
    IN MM. MENISCUS MM. a2 PE
    PER MM2

    Water............. 14.394 0.321 14.715 0.99823 14.861 72.62


    Benzenee........... 6.351 0.311 6.662 0.8788 6.728 28.94
    Toluene........... 6.369 0.311 6.680 0.8658 6.736 28.58

    Data obtained with Apparatus IV (20.00?)


    Radius of capillary = 0.1936 mm.

    Benzene..... 3..... 34.620 0.061 34.681 0.8788 6.714 28.89


    Methyl alcohol:....30.063 0.061 30.124 0.7918 5.832 22.61
    Ethyl alcohol....... 29.720 0.061 29.781 0.7892 5.766 22.27
    Isobutyl alcohol.... 30.016 0.061 30.077 0.8019 5.823 22.86
    Ethyl butyrate... 29.403 0.061 29.464 0.8789 5.704 24.53

    It will be noted that, in general, these results are higher than most
    of the earlier results, for the reasons already suggested. For example,
    Quincke found only 14.47 as the capillary constant of water, and Renard
    and Guye found 6.47 for that of benzene. The carefully obtained re-
    sults of Walden and Swinne, although measured in a fairly satisfactory
    apparatus, are all subject to the same error, because the apparatus was
    calibrated by means of a value of the capillary constant of benzene
    which is too low. It is hoped that an exact evaluation of the amount
    of this error may make it possible to correct the comprehensive and valu-
    ANTHROPOLOGY: A. HRDLICKA 407

    able work of Ramsay and Shields and Aston, as well as that of Renard
    and Guye, to the standard herewith shown to be more trustworthy.
    This paper is only a preliminary communication. A fuller report of
    the work will appear in the July number of the Journal of the American
    Chemical Society. Much more work upon the subject has already been
    finished, and yet more is in prospect. We hope that yet further ac-
    curacy may be attained in the future, bearing in mind the precautions
    to which attention has been called in this paper, and that the results
    may be capable of fruitful discussion.
    In conclusion, we are glad to express our indebtedness to the Carnegie
    Institution of Washington for some of the apparatus we have employed.
    Summary.-In the course of a series of determinations of capillary
    constants by measuring the capillary rise in fine tubes, the following
    precautions have been especially emphasized: (1) The detection and cor-
    rection of inequalities in the glass tubes employed were effected by the
    use of a reversible apparatus. (2) Reference of the capillary rise was
    made to an unrestricted flat surface 38 mm. in diameter, the largest
    ever used. It was shown that much smaller surfaces are too small
    and that the insertion of a capillary in the middle of a larger tube causes
    appreciable error by increasing the capillary effect of the large tube.
    (3) Especial care was taken that the true bottom of the meniscus should
    be read. (4) The weight of the fine meniscus was in each case allowed
    for, and a new approximate formula was suggested for its calculation,
    depending upon the observed height of the meniscus.
    Heeding these precautions, determinations of the capillary constants
    of several important liquids were determined at 20? as follows: water
    14.861, benzene 6.721, toluene 6.736, methyl alcohol 5.832, ethyl alcohol
    5.793, isobutyl alcohol 5.823, ethyl butyrate 5.704.

    AN EXHIBIT IN PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY


    By Ales Hrdlicka
    DIVISION OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, WASHINGTON
    Presentedto the Academy,June8, 1915

    In the April number of the PROCEEINGSOF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY


    OF SCIENCES,I published a brief account of "Some recent anthropological
    explorations, " which were carried out under my direction or by myself,
    for the Smithsonian Institution and the Panama-California Exposition
    at San Diego, in different parts of the world. I shall now point, in an
    equally brief way, to the material results of these expeditions in relation
    with the Exposition.

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