Transition Interval.--From what has been said, and from an examination of the isothermal diagrams, Figs. 104-107, it will be seen that by a variation of the temperature we can pass from a condition where the double salt is quite incapable of existing in contact with solution (supersaturation being excluded), to a condition where the existence of the double salt in presence of solution becomes possible; only in the presence, however, of one of the single salts (_transition point_, Fig. 105). A further change of temperature leads to a condition where the stable existence of the pure double salt in contact with solution just becomes possible (Fig. 106); and from this point onwards, pure saturated solutions of the double salt can be obtained (Fig. 107). _At any temperature, therefore, between that represented by Fig. 105, and that represented by Fig. 106, the double salt undergoes partial decomposition, with deposition of one of the constituent salts._ The temperature range between the transition point and the temperature at which a stable saturated solution of the pure double salt just begins to be possible, is known as the _transition interval_ (p. 270). As the figures show, the transition interval is limited on the one side by the transition temperature, and on the other by the temperature at which the solution saturated for double salt and the less soluble of the single salts, contains the component salts in the same ratio as they are present in the double salt. The greater the difference in the solubility of the single salts, the larger will be the transition interval. { 278}
Isothermal Evaporation.--The isothermal solubility curves are of great importance for obtaining an insight into the behaviour of a solution when subjected to isothermal evaporation. To simplify the discussion of the relationships found here, we shall still suppose that the double salt contains the single salts in equimolecular proportions; and we shall, in the first instance, suppose that the unsaturated solution with which we commence, also contains the single salts in the same ratio. The composition of the solution must, therefore, be represented by some point lying on the line OD, the bisectrix of the right angle.