PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE EXISTENCE OF ICE 
AND OTHER BODIES IN THE SOLID STATE AT 
TEMPERATURES FAR ABOVE THEIR ORDINARY 
MELTINGr POINTS. 
By THOMAS CARNELLEY, B.Se., 
Professor of Chemistry in Firth College, Sheffield.* 
I N the present communication I have the honour to lay before 
the Royal Society a detailed description of experiments, 
proving that under certain conditions it is possible for ice and 
other bodies to exist in the solid state at temperatures far above 
their ordinary melting points. On a future occasion I hope 
to submit to the Society a full account of the investigation of 
which these experiments form a part, together with the conclu- 
sions to be drawn therefrom. The bodies whose behaviour I 
propose to discuss at present are ice and mercuric chloride. 
Ice. 
In the case of ice the great difficulty to he overcome 
is to maintain the pressure in the containing vessel below 4* 6 
millims., i. e ., the tension of aqueous vapour at the freezing 
point, for it will be easily understood that if the ice be but 
slightly heated the quantity of vapour given off would soon he 
sufficient to raise the pressure above that point. After several 
fruitless attempts the following plan, involving the principle of 
the cryophorus, was adopted. 
A strong glass bottle, such as is used for freezing water by 
means of Carre’s pump, was fitted with a cork and glass tube C 
(fig. 1), and the cork well fastened down by copper wire and 
paraffin wax. A and C were then filled with mercury, and C 
connected with the end of the tube DE by means of the piece 
of stout india-rubber pump tubing B, a thermometer having 
been previously attached by the wire x to the lip of the tube 
* From the Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1881, No. 209. 
