Scientific American Supplement, No. 299, September 24, 1881Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 299, September 24, 1881
Various
Science -- Periodicals
d. The quality of the vapors emitted by a mixture of water and alcohol
varies according to the alcoholic richness of the solution, but is not
in simple proportion thereto.
e. The quality of the vapors emitted by a definite mixture of water and
alcohol varies according to the temperature.
f. In a same solution of water and alcohol, it is at low temperatures
that the vapors emitted by the mixture contain the largest proportion of
alcohol.
g. The more the temperature rises the more the tensions of the two
liquids tend to become equalized.
We have been able to verify these different laws experimentally, and
to find an interesting confirmation of our general formula of maximum
tensions, in the following way:
Let us take a test tube containing a 50 per cent. solution of alcohol
and water, plunge it into water of 20°C., and put its interior in
hermetic communication with the receiver of a mercurial air-pump.
We vaporize at 20° a certain quantity of the liquid, and the vapors
fill the known capacity of the pump. The pressure of the gases in the
interior is ascertained by a pressure gauge, and this pressure should be
constant if care is taken to act upon a sufficient mass of liquid and
with moderate speed. When the receiver of the air-pump is full of
vapors, communication between it and the test-tube is shut off, and
communication is effected with a second test-tube, like the first,
plunged into the same water at 20°. Care must be taken beforehand to
create a perfect vacuum in this test-tube.
On causing the mercury to rise into the space that it previously
occupied, the vapors are made to condense in the second test-tube at the
same temperature as that at which they were formed.
We immediately ascertain that the pressure-gauge shows an elevation
of pressure; moreover, the proof of the condensed alcohol has very
perceptibly risen.
If, instead of causing these vapors to condense in the second test-tube,
we leave the first communication open, the vapors recondense in the
first test-tube without any elevation of pressure; and we do not see the
least trace of liquid forming in the second test tube.
This difference of pressure in the two foregoing experiments must be
attributed, then, to the specific action of the water on the vapors of
alcohol. Now we can calculate the difference of the work of the pump,
and put at 1 kilogramme of condensed liquid the difference of mechanical
work represented in kilogrammeters. What is remarkable is that this
difference is absolutely the equivalent of the heat disengaged when the
condensed liquid and the old liquid are remixed; there is a complete
identity. Thus the affinity of the water for the alcohol modifies the
tension of the vapors which form or condense upon the free surface of
the mixture. The two phenomena are closely connected by the law of
equivalence.
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