Potential energy of liquid surfaces

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1879
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 58 KB
• Volume: 108
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-0032(79)90440-x

✦ Synopsis

Potential E~ter(]y of Liquid ~q'to;faees. 215

Potential Energy of Liquid Surfaces.--In 1876, G. Van der Mensbrugghe demonstrated the two following propositions: I. If the upper free lay(n-of a liquid mass undergoes an expansion, it becomes cooler; if, on the contrary, it contract% it becomes warmer.

2. In each case there are developed in the m~s thcrmo-electric ourrents, with intensities inversely proportioned to the mass, and directly t)roportioned to the suriltce variations.

tie al)plied these t)ropositions to the explanation of the movements ,m the suriltccs of soap-bubbles, the alternating movements of liquid layers on other liquids, the occasional extraordinary production of h(~at in a solid when moistened by a liquid, the thermo-eleetrie currents devetol)ed by variations of extent in the su~aee of separation between two liquids, the enormous electric discharges in storms, the maintenan('e in a liquid state of the little drot)s which form clouds and mists in a t}'eezing atmosphere~ the exceptional phenomena presented by ,()m(! alloys near their limits of greatest densi~/y, the intense heat which is required to detach a volatile liquid from a porous surfhee, the phea.mena (if' ebullition observed in Donny's classical experiments, Hanstcn's relation between meteorological perturbations and magnetic variations, the movements of' bubbles of air in levels and vaporbubbles in the c.tvities of minerals, and Savart's phenomena in liquid sheets. In a recent paper he has extended the application of his fbrnmlas to the loss of heat in a jet of vapor, the increasing energy of waves, the tbrmation of bars at the mouths of rivers, and the motion of tim Gulf Stream. His explanations are all very ingenious, and many of them are confirmed by satisfactory experiments.--Bull, de t'Acad. Roy. de Belglque.

C.