Oil-in-water emulsions were prepared by dispersion of hexadecane into aqueous solutions of various poly(oxyethylene) alkyl ethers as a function of agitation time. The resulting emulsions were characterized by the measurements of size distribution, adsorbed amounts of poly(oxyethylene) alkyl ethers, and steady-state shear viscosities. Stable emulsions with a volume fraction of hexadecane in the emulsion higher than 0.7 were obtained for only 10 s of the agitation time. The size distribution of the oil droplets, the adsorbed amount of the emulsifier, and the shear viscosity were attained the plateau values for the agitation time of 600 s, irrespective of the emulsifier used, However, the volume fraction of oil in the respective emulsions was fixed, irrespective of the agitation time. The plateau number of oxyethylene groups adsorbed per surface area of the oil droplets was almost independent of the oxyethylene length. The sheer-viscosity data were compared with the scaling,analysis.