METEORIC AND ARTIFICIAL NICKEL-IRON ALLOYS. 
85 
the temperature is slightly above B, a small quantity will change its state. There 
will be a redistribution of the components chemically as well as physically, since the 
composition of the crystals is different from that of the solution. The small quantity 
of solid solution first formed will be richer in nickel than the mixed crystals which 
remain. A larger fraction of the total amount of nickel than of the total amount of 
iron will go into solution. 
But as the relative amount of the solution increases, the percentage amount of 
nickel it contains will diminish, until, finally, when the last of the crystals disappear, 
the composition of the solid solution will be the same as that of the original 
crystallised material. 
During recrystallisation the reverse process will occur. The crystals first formed 
will be relatively weak in nickel, but as their amount increases so also will the 
percentage of nickel they contain. A larger fraction of the iron than of the nickel 
goes into the crystals, however, and the solution gets richer in nickel also, although it 
diminishes in amount. 
Fig. 27. 
