THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OP SCIENCE. 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 



JUNE 1897. 



LV. The Thermo- electric Properties of some Liquid Metals. 

 By William Beckit Buknie, lately 1851 Exhibition Science 

 Research Scholar, Nottingham *. 



THE object of the experiments here to be described was to 

 compare the thermo-electric properties of solid metals 

 with those of the same metals when melted. The four metals 

 employed, tin, lead, bismuth, and mercury, were each thermo- 

 electrically compared with copper, the tested metal being- 

 contained in a hard glass tube, so that the observations could 

 be pushed to temperatures considerably above those of the 

 melting metals, and the changes in the thermo-electric pro- 

 perties during the process of melting observed. Two sets of 

 experiments were made, the first set with the greater part of 

 the metal under test at ordinary temperatures, and the second 

 set with all the metal under test at high temperatures. 



In the first set of experiments with tin, lead, and bismuth, 

 the glass tube containing the metal was W-shaped, the metal 

 filling the central part, but only rising about one-third of the 

 height in the outside limbs. To fill this tube one end was 

 dipped into a crucible full of the melted metal, which was 

 then allowed to cool. The crucible and tube were immersed 

 in a bath of linseed oil, which was raised to a temperature 

 above that required to melt the metal. When the metal was 

 quite liquid, air was withdrawn from the upper end of the 

 tube till the metal bad risen to the right height. The tube 

 was next slowly withdrawn from the still hot oil, to prevent 



* Communicated by the Physical Society: read Feb. 26, 1897. 

 Phil. Mag. S. 5. Vol. 43. No. 265. June 18U7. 2 H 



