Manchester Memoirs^ Vol. xlviii. (1904), No. C 



VI. On the Specific Heats and Specific Volumes of 

 Certain Alloys. 



By H. E. SCHMITZ, M.A., B.Sc. 



Receh'ed and read Jainiary i^th, igo^. 



Among the various methods that have been used for 

 the study of the constitution of alloys, the determination 

 of the specific heat has attracted but little attention. It is 

 in fact generally assumed that the specific heat at ordinary 

 temperatures of any alloy that does not fuse near 100° C 

 follows the law enunciated by Regnault* as the result 

 of his study of certain alloys of lead-tin, lead-antimony, 

 bismuth-tin, bismuth-tin-antimony and bismuth-tin-anti- 

 mony-zinc. Most of the published values for the specific 

 heat of alloys are in accordance with Regnault's law,f but 

 certain measurements by Laborde:|: show that the alloys 

 of iron-antimony are exceptional. Laborde's results 

 indicate a compound Fe„Sb4, and the same or nearly the 

 same compound is indicated by the diagram of specific 

 volume-! 



Certain apparently anomalous values obtained by 

 myself led me to examine several alloys that appeared to 

 promise interesting results. The results obtained are on 

 the whole confirmatory of Regnault's law, but, as the mass 

 of available data is by no means large, it may be useful 

 to place them on record. Any real deviations from the 

 law must almost certainly be small|| and therefore difficult 

 to detect. I hope in the future by the application of other 



*Ann. de Chivi. et de Phys., 1841, Vol. i, p. 183. 



fSee for instance : Tomlinson, Proc. Roy. Soc, 1885, Vol. 38, pp. 497-8 ; 

 Tilden, Phil. Traits. A., 1900, Vol. 194, pp. 244-5 5 Landoltand Bornstein's 

 "Tables," second edition, p. 324; and for low temperature determinations Behn, 

 Anji.d. Physik, 1900, Vol. I, pp. 260-2. 



X Journal de Physiqtte, 1896, Vol. 5, p. 547. 



§Maey, Zeitschr. Phys. Chefii., 1901, Vol. 38, p. 302. 



I i Laborde's hypothetical compound has a specific heat about 3 per cent, 

 in excess of the calculated specific heat. 



March 2nd, igo4. 



