Hand Boiler

Description

A hand boiler is a glass sculpture used as an experimental tool to demonstrate Charles’s Law and vapour-liquid equilibrium. The coloured liquid inside a hand boiler is composed of a volatile mixture of liquids that places the boiling point of the mixture to just above room temperature. The liquid inside the Hand Boiler does not actually boil. The “boiling” is caused by the relationship between the temperature and pressure of a gas. As the temperature of a gas in a closed container rises, the pressure also rises. The molecules are moving faster in the warmer gas. There must be a temperature (and pressure) difference between the two large chambers for the liquid to move. When held upright (with the smaller bulb on top), the liquid will move from the bulb with the higher pressure to the bulb with lower pressure.