XX. The limiting thickness of liquid films

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Abstract
The experiments described in this Paper are an extension of our previous investigations on the properties of liquid films. The interest and the difficulty of such inquiries increase as the thickness of the films diminishes, and culminate when they are sufficiently thin to show the black of the first order of Newton’s rings. We can in that case only infer from the colour that the thickness is less than a certain possible maximum. Our knowledge as to the real value of this maximum is, we venture to think, very uncertain, but it furnished, we believe, previous to our own investigations, the only clue to the thickness of a black liquid film. In a Paper on the “Thickness of Soap Films” (Proc. Roy. Soc., 1877, No. 182, p. 345), we were however able to show, for the particular liquid and apparatus used :— i. That the variations in thickness of the black portions of the films were but a small fraction of that thickness. ii. That the thickness was independent of the breadth of the black ring. iii. That it was also independent of the thickness of that portion of the film which appeared to the naked eye to be in immediate contact with it.

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