No abstract

A survey of published data on water and mercury has revealed that conventional methods of measuring compressibility are inaccurate. An analysis of the form of the discrepancies in the data has indicated that anisotropic distortion of the apparatus and air entrainment are the two principal sources of error. Means of eliminating these and other sources of error are described.By utilizing the principles of accurate measurement outlined in this paper, the isothermal compressibility of liquids can be measured several times more accurately than has been achieved before.

No abstract

Experiments on the initiation of cavitation in denucleated liquids in a tension manometer are described. It was found that gas nuclei, probably stabilized by the hydrophobic crevice mechanism postulated by Harvey, exist in water but in none of the organic liquids tested. Consequently it appears that stabilized gas nuclei cannot play an essential part in hydrodynamic cavitation, which can readily occur through the generation of nuclei ab initio by certain forms of mechanical action operating through some molecular mechanism which is not yet understood.

The isothermal compressibility of mercury at 20 "C and 192 bar has been determined with an accuracy estimated at k 0.4 %, which represents a considerable increase in accuracy over previous determinations. The value obtained is within 0.3% of that derived from the velocity of sound by Davis and Gordon, although the accuracy claimed for the latter was only k 0.8 %.