Fig. 15.3. Viktor designed this surprisingly simple but ingenious experiment that anyone can replicate with simple laboratory equipment,
which consists of a U-tube, the bend of which is filled with pure quartz sand that is then saturated with salt water. This effectively separates
and prevents communication between each side of the U-tube, but the salt water can be displaced laterally when pressure is higher in one arm.
The top of one arm has attached an adaptor to two fine capillary tubes, which allow contact with the air. The other arm has four fine
capillaries attached to it. Both arms are now filled with fresh high quality spring water with little oxygen content, which has not been
exposed to the Sun, or for long to the air.
The U-tube is then placed in an insulated container, e.g. a bucket, containing ice at the bottom, and then filled with good loam. The
ice will create an artificial environment of +4°C (39°F) at the bend of the U-tube, helping to bring about a positive temperature gradient
from the top of the loam downwards.
The container is then placed in the heat of the Sun and slowly as the +4°C (39°F) temperature is reached below and the higher water
heats up, the water level in the arm with 4 outlets will rise and overflow as there is less resistance on that side, the water on the other side
remaining level. The rise in the water level is assisted by the heat of the Sun converting the carbonic acid in the water into carbon dioxide
bubbles that push the water bundles ahead of the them and pull the water behind, creating a pulsating effect.
During the night the water on the 4-capillary side subsides, the carbones in the water having absorbed the oxygen and other gases from
the atmosphere. This makes it specifically heavier, exerting pressure through the sand barrier on the other side of the U-tube, causing the
water level in this tube to rise up its pair of capillaries.
This replicates the natural process of pulsation that happens with all liquids in Nature, a pulsation which is caused by temperature difference,
pressure and suction. This experiment sets out to duplicate particularly the conditions under which sap rises in the daytime (the four capillaries
representing the xylem tubelets), falling back at night time (the pair of capillaries approximate the delivery of the phloem tubelets).
To demonstrate the action of a natural spring, the adaptor with four capillaries is removed, leaving the shorter side open, so that the water
rises and overflows on that side when the temperature difference is greatest between the +4°C (39°F) environment at the bottom of the
bucket, and that at the surface of the loam. At night the water drops on the open side, rising on the side with the two capillaries.
HIDDEN NATURE