Doctoral Thesis Cover Page — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

II4 L. E. SWEARINGEN AND L. H. REYERSON the catalyst in order to note any rise in the temperature of the catalyst above that of the bath in which the catalyst tube was immersed. On leaving the catalyst tube the gas was first bubbled through a wash-bottle containing water in order to cool the gases and then led into the gas analysis apparatus. This was a modified Orsat apparatus. It contained absorption pipettes filled with small glass tubes and a water-jacketed gas-measuring burette of 100 cc. capacity. The manifold of the Orsat apparatus was closed with two-way stop cocks in such a manner that the gases flowing from the catalyst could be passed through the manifold by-passed around it. Except during analysis the gas flowed continuously through the manifold. The burette and pipettes were separated from the manifold by glass stop cocks. In this investigation the oxygen content of the gas mixture was the only thing determined. ‘The oxygen was absorbed in an alkaline solution (1500 gm. of KOH per liter of water) of pyrogallol containing 10 gm of pyrogallic acid per too gm. of solu- tion. The catalyst tube was kept immersed in a bath for temperature control. Above 150° solder metal was used, between 100° and 150° Wood’s metal was used and below roo° water or ice and ice salt mixtures were used. The bath was well insulated and constant temperatures could be maintained to within a degree or two at the higher temperatures. The temperature was always taken at the time of sampling for analysis. Iixperiments were carried out showing the effect of temperature on the combination of hydrogen and oxygen in the presence of the copper and silver gel catalysts. Since the reaction was practically complete at all temperatures in the case of the platinized and palladized gels when the rate of flow was low. a study was made of the efficiency of the catalysts at various rates of flow for several temperatures. Results The results of the experimental work are presented in Tables I to IV. When two columns are given under the heading temperature, the column to the left gives the temperature of the bath in which the catalyst tube is im- mersed while the column to the right gives the temperature as recorded by the thermometer imbedded in the catalyst. In the cases where only one col- umn is given, the temperature recorded was that of the bath. This also in- dicated that the thermometer in the catalyst recorded the same temperature as that in the bath. Fig. 1 shows graphically the effect of temperature upon the efficiency of copper and silver catalysts in promoting the water synthesis. The rates of flow were low. Fig. 2 illustrates the effect of changing the rate of flow on the efficiency of the more active platinum and palladium catalysts. Three temperatures are given for each catalyst, and the temperatures are those of the bath surrounding the catalyst tube. CORNIELOOO KS (C(O)