figure 1. Apparatus for producing rafts of bubbles.
2. Method of formation
The bubbles are blown from a fine orifice, beneath the surface of a soap solution. We have had the best results with a solution the formula of which was given to us by Mr. Green of the Royal Institution. 15-2 c.c. of oleic acid (pure redistilled) is well shaken in 50 c.c. of distilled water. This is mixed thoroughly with 73c.с. of 10% solution of tri-ethanolamine and the mixture made up to 200 c.c. To this is added 164 c.c. of pure glycerine. It is left to stand and the clear liquid is drawn off from below. In some experiments this was diluted in three times its volume of water to reduce viscosity. The orifice of the jet is about 5 mm. below the surface. A constant air pressure of 50 to 200cm. of water is supplied by means of two Winchester flasks. Normally the bubbles are remarkably uniform in size. Occasionally they issue in an irregular manner, but this can be corrected by a change of jet or of pressure. Unwanted bubbles can easily be destroyed by playing a small flame over the surface. Figure 1 shows the apparatus. We have found it of advantage to blacken the bottom of the vessel, because details of structure, such as grain boundaries and dislocations, then show up more clearly.
Figure 2, plate 8, shows a portion of a ' raft' or two-dimensional crystal of bubbles. Its regularity can be judged by looking at the figure in a glancing direction. The size of the bubbles varies with the aperture, but does not appear to vary to any marked degree with the pressure or the depth of the orifice beneath the surface. The main effect of increasing the pressure is to increase the rate of issue of the bubbles. As an example, a thick-walled jet of 49μ bore with a pressure of 100cm. produced bubbles of 1-2 mm. in diameter A thin-walled jet of 27μ diameter and a pressure of 180cm. produced bubbles of 0.6 mm diameter It is convenient to refer to bubbles of 2.0 to 1.0mm. diameter as 'large' bubbles, those from 0.8 to 0.6mm. diameter as 'medium' bubbles, and those from 0.3 to 0.1 mm. diameter as 'small' bubbles, since their behaviour varies with their size.
figure 3. Apparatus for producing bubbles of small size.
With this apparatus we have not found it possible to reduce the size of the jet and so produce bubbles of smaller diameter than 0.6 mm. As it was desired to experiment with very small bubbles, we had recourse to placing the soap solution in a rotating vessel and introducing a fine jet as nearly as possible parallel to a stream line. The bubbles are swept away as they form, and under steady conditions are reasonably uniform. They issue at a rate of one thousand or more per second, giving a high-pitched note. The soap solution mounts up in a steep wall around the perimeter of the vessel while it is rotating, but carries back most of the bubbles with it when rotation ceases. With this device, illustrated in figure 3, bubbles down to 0.12 mm. in diameter can be obtained. As an example, an orifice 38μ across in a thin-walled jet, with a pressure of 190cm. of water, and a speed of the fluid of I80cm./sec. past the orifice, produced bubbles of 0.14 mm. diameter. In this case a dish of diameter 9-5 cm. and speed of 6 rev./sec. was used. Figure 4, plate 8, is an enlarged picture of these 'small' bubbles and shows their degree of regularity; the pattern is not as perfect with a rotating as with a stationary vessel, the rows being seen to be slightly irregular when viewed in a glancing direction.
These two-dimensional crystals show structures which have been supposed to exist in metals, and simulate effects which have been observed, such as grain boundaries, dislocations and other types of fault, slip, recrystallization, annealing, and strains due to ' foreign' atoms.
3. Grain boundaries
Figures 5a, 56 and 5c, plates 9 and 10, show typical grain boundaries for bubbles of 1.87, 0.76 and 0.30 mm. diameter respectively. The width of the disturbed area at the boundary, where the bubbles have an irregular distribution, is in general greater the smaller the bubbles. In figure 5a, which shows portions of several adjacent grains, bubbles at a boundary between two grains adhere definitely to one crystalline arrangement or the other. In figure 5с there is a marked ' Beilby layer' between the two grains. The small bubbles, as will be seen, have a greater rigidity than the large ones, and this appears to give rise to more irregularity at the interface.
Separate grains show up distinctly when photographs of polycrystalline rafts such as figures 5a to 5c, plates 9 and 10, and figures 12a to 12e, plates 14 to 16, are viewed obliquely. With suitable lighting, the floating raft of bubbles itself when viewed obliquely resembles a polished and etched metal in a remarkable way.
It often happens that some 'impurity atoms', or bubbles which are markedly larger or smaller than the average, are found in a polycrystalline raft, and when this is so a large proportion of them are situated at the grain boundaries. It would be incorrect to say that the irregular bubbles make their way to the boundaries; it is a defect of the model that no diffusion of bubbles through the structure can take place, mutual adjustments of neighbours alone being possible. It appears that the boundaries tend to readjust themselves by the growth of one crystal at the expense of another till they pass through the irregular atoms.
4. Dislocations
When a single crystal or polycrystalline raft is compressed, extended, or otherwise deformed it exhibits a behaviour very similar to that which has been pictured for metals subjected to strain. Up to a certain limit the model is within its elastic range. Beyond that point it yields by slip along one of the three equally inclined directions of closely packed rows. Slip takes place by the bubbles in one row moving forward over those in the next row by an amount equal to the distance between neighbours. It is very interesting to watch this process taking place. The movement is not simultaneous along the whole row but begins at one end with the appearance of a 'dislocation', where there is locally one more bubble in the rows on one side of the slip line as compared with those on the other. This dislocation then runs along the slip line from one side of the crystal to the other, the final result being a slip by one 'inter-atomic' distance. Such a process has been invoked by Orowan, by Polanyi and by Taylor to explain the small forces required to produce plastic gliding in metal structures. The theory put forward by Taylor (1934) to explain the mechanism of plastic deformation of crystals considers the mutual action and equilibrium of such dislocations. The bubbles afford a very striking picture of what has been supposed to take place in the metal. Sometimes the dislocations run along quite slowly, taking a matter of seconds to cross a crystal; stationary dislocations also are to be seen in crystals which are not homogeneously strained. They appear as short black lines, and can be seen in the series of photographs, figures 12a to 12 e, plates 14 to 16. When a polycrystalline raft is compressed, these dark lines are seen to be dashing about in all directions across the crystals.
Figures 6a, 66 and 6c, plates 10 and 11, show examples of dislocations. In figure 6a, where the diameter of the bubbles is 1.9 mm., the dislocation is very local, extending over about six bubbles. In figure 66 (diameter 0.76 mm.) it extends over twelve bubbles, and in figure 6c (diameter 0.30mm.) its influence can be traced for a length of about fifty bubbles. The greater rigidity of the small bubbles leads to longer dislocations. The study of any mass of bubbles shows, however, that there is not a standard length of dislocation for each size. The length depends upon the nature of the strain in the crystal. A boundary between two crystals with corresponding axes at approximately 30° (the maximum angle which can occur) may be regarded as a series of dislocations in alternate rows, and in this case the dislocations are very short. As the angle between the neighbouring crystals decreases, the dislocations occur at wider intervals and at the same time become longer, till one finally has single dislocations in a large body of perfect structure as shown in figures 6a, 6b and 6c.