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-The paper exammes the effect of fimte pressure gradients on the chsperslon of a pulse of an adsorbable gaseous specks as it Rows through a fixed bed of adsorbmg spherical particles It IS shown that, even for slgnfficant devratlons from lsobanc con&Ions wrthm the bed, there IS an asymptotic lmear relatlonshlp between the first moment of the response (the mean retention time) and the reciprocal of the exit flow rate, a charactenst~ of the ~sobanc s~tuatmn However, unhke the lsobanc case. extrapolatmn of the asymptotic hnemty lo mfintte flow rate leads to a non-zero lirst moment at that point Furthermore. extrapolation to zero first moment corresponds to a hypothetical flow rate which is dependent only on the parameters of the packed bed and the vwcoslty of the tamer gas and. specdically, IS independent of the nature of the adsorbed species The theory has been confirmed by a senes of chromatographaz adsorptaon experunentn under non-lsobartc conditions Subsequently, the same expenmental data have been employed tn conJunction with the theory to obtam adsorption eqmhbnum constanfs for four normal alkanes (propane, butane, pentane. and bexane) on alumma III the temperature range SO-2WC with an uncertainty of f 3%