Dropping funnels are useful for adding reagents slowly, i.e. drop-wise.[1] Dropping funnels are usually constructed with a ground glass joint at the bottom, which allows the funnel to fit snugly onto a round bottom flask.[2] Pressure-equalizing dropping funnels have an additional narrow-bore glass tube from the bulb of the funnel, to the ground glass joint around the stem.These replace the liquid volume lost in the bulb with the equivalent gas volume from the flask into which the reagent is flowing, and are useful when handling air-sensitive reagents in a sealed, inert-gas environment.Without this tube, or some other means to equalize the pressure between a sealed receiving flask and the bulb of the funnel, the flow of fluid from the bulb will rapidly come to a halt.