^8() SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



Morgan has made a series of experiments on the viscosity of ice, which, 

 taken in connection with results obtained by other experimenters, are 

 of great interest. In the first a cylinder of ice 3 inches in diameter 

 was supported on a board, and over it a wire was hung loaded with a 

 total weight of 5 pounds. The whole was placed in the snow chamber of 

 a refrigerating apparatus for six and a half hours at a temperature never 

 above— 12°. No dent was observable on the surface of the cylinder. 

 The second experiment was similar, the weight being increased to 10 

 pounds and the time to eight hours, but the result was the same. In 

 the third, the weight was 14 pounds and the time seventeen and a half 

 hours, but no indentation was observable. In the fourth experiment a 

 bar of ice 2^ inches wide and li thick was supported on bearers 13^ 

 inches apart, from Monday noon to Saturday noon without perceptible 

 flexure. In the fifth the bar was weighted in the middle for the same 

 time with 7 pounds, but with the same result. In the sixth, 18 pounds 

 weight acting for the same time gave no perceptible deflection. In the 

 seventh a similar though thinner bar, varying from '025 to '875 of an 

 inch in thickness, was weighted for four days with 7 pounds and for 

 two days with 7 pounds additional. No bending could be detected by 

 measurement. The author cites experiments at other temperatures, and 

 concludes that the viscosity of ice is considerable at temperatures at 

 and above the melting point, is much less below but near this point, 

 is very slight between — 3.5^ and —12°, and is nil below — 12°. {Nature, 

 May, 1885, xxxii, 16.) 



Fromme has observed that the purely mechanical interpretation of 

 the change of properties which steel undergoes by hardening, in which 

 the pressure which the external layer suddenly cooled exerts on the 

 internal portions, plays a prominent part, leads to consequences con- 

 cerning the density of a tempered mass of steel which are not always 

 in accord with experiment. It must be admitted that this mechanical 

 action produces so close an approximation of the molecules that a con- 

 secutive chemical action results, *. e., the combination of the iron and 

 the carbon. In this way it is not difficult to see that slow cooling, 

 effected under a considerable pressure, can produce the physical effects 

 of hardening, as the experiments of Clemandot and Lan have shown. 

 ( Wied. Ann., xxii, 371 ; J. Phys., December, 1885, II, iv, 583.) 



2. Of Liquids. 



In conjunction with Vicentini, Pagliani has determined the coefficient 

 of compressibility of water at various temperatures. At 0° it is 

 0-0000503 ; at 10°, 0-0000470 ; at 20°, 0-0000445 ; at 30°, 0-0000425 ; at 

 40O, 0-0000409; at 50O, 0-0000397; at 60°, 00000389; at 70°, 0-0000390; 

 at 80°, 0-0000396 ; at 90°, 0-0000402 ; and at lOOo, 0-0000410. The same 

 author, working with Palazzo, finds the compressibility of ethyl alcohol 

 to be represented by the emj)irical formula ;it=i«o (l^ ^003177^+ 



