The solubility of a gas like ammonia may be demonstrated by taking a flask full of the gas, and closed by a cork with a tube passing through it. On placing the tube under water, the water will rise into the flask (this may be accelerated by previously warming the flask), and begin to play like a fountain inside it. Both the rising of the mercury and the fountain clearly show the considerable affinity of water for ammonia gas, and the force acting in this dissolution is rendered evident.
A certain period of time is required both for the homogeneous intermixture of gases (diffusion) and the process of solution, which depends, not only on the surface of the participating substances, but also on their nature.
This is seen from experiment. Solutions of different substances heavier than water, such as salt or sugar, are poured into tall jars. Pure water is then very carefully poured into these jars (through a funnel) on to the top of the solutions, so as not to disturb the lower stratum, and the jars are then left undisturbed. The line of demarcation between the solution and the pure water will be visible, owing to their different co-efficients of refraction. Notwithstanding that the solutions taken are heavier than water, after some time complete intermixture will ensue.
Gay Lussac convinced himself of this fact by this particular experiment, which he conducted in the cellars under the Paris Astronomical Observatory. These cellars are well known as the locality where numerous interesting researches have been conducted, because, owing to their depth under ground, they have a uniform temperature during the whole year; the temperature does not change during the day, and this was indispensable for the experiments on the diffusion of solutions, in order that no doubt as to the results should arise from a daily change of temperature (the experiment lasted several months), which would set up currents in the liquids and intermix their strata.
Notwithstanding the uniformity of the temperature, the substance in solution in time ascended into the water and distributed itself uniformly through it, proving that there exists between water and a substance dissolved in it a particular kind of attraction or striving for mutual interpenetration in opposition to the force of gravity. Further, this effort, or rate of diffusion, is different for salt or sugar or for various other substances.17
It follows therefore that a peculiar force acts in solution, as in actual chemical combinations, and solution is determined by a particular kind of motion (by the chemical energy of a substance) which is proper to the substance dissolved and to the solvent.
Graham made a series of experiments similar to those above described, and showed that the rate of diffusion18 in water is very variable—that is, a uniform distribution of a substance in the water dissolving it is attained in different periods of time with different solutions. Graham compared diffusive capacity with volatility. There are substances which diffuse easily, and there are others which diffuse with difficulty, just as there are more or less volatile substances.
Seven hundred cubic centimetres of water were poured into a jar, and by means of a syphon (or a pipette) 100 cub. centimetres of a solution containing 10 grams of a substance were cautiously poured in so as to occupy the lower portion of the jar. After a lapse of several days, successive layers of 50 cubic centimetres were taken from the top downwards, and the quantity of substance dissolved in the different layers determined.