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XXIV.—On the Thermal Conductivity of Iron, Copper, and German Silver

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2012

Extract

Shortly after I read to the Society my paper on “Thermal and Electric Conductivity” (Trans. R. S. E., 1878), in which I stated that the results were “by no means final, even so far as my own work is concerned,” I was requested by Sir Wyville Thomson to undertake the examination of the “Pressure Errors of the ‘Challenger’ Thermometers.” This investigation led to another on the “Compression of Sea-Water,” and allied subjects, which is not yet finished. Meanwhile, though I had prepared everything for my promised repetition of the experiments on Thermal Conductivity, the bars formerly used having been nickelised, &c, I found that it would be impossible for me to carry out the investigation. I therefore asked Mr Mitchell, who, as Neil-Arnott Scholar, had already done good and careful work on Thermal Conductivity in my Laboratory, to repeat the experiments under the altered conditions. I put at his disposal all the apparatus which was employed in the former research. The Government Grant Committee allowed a sum for the payment of a computer to reduce the results, and the observations were at once commenced. The results are now laid before the Society, and are probably as good as the method and the thermometers employed can furnish.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1888

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References

page 552 note * The following numbers were used in correcting for change of specific heat as representing the rise per degree Centigrade:—

They are based on the results of experiments made in 1868, by the late Mr J. W. Nicol in Prof. Tait's Laboratory; the materials used, with the unfortunate exception of the iron, being portions of the bars tested for conductivity.

page 554 note * The last number in each of these columns gives the whole area of that part of the curve beyond the corresponding value of x.