Abstract
METALLURGICAL research during the past twenty years has been largely devoted to the study of alloys, and as one result we now possess a series of more or less complicated equilibrium diagrams representing the constitution of most of the binary and of some of the ternary systems. While, on one hand, increasing accuracy of methods has rendered these diagrams far more complex than was at first supposed, a careful examination of those which are most thoroughly established suggests that, widely as they vary among themselves, there are certain regularities which point to some common fundamental principle which, if once grasped, would exhibit these varied diagrams as parts of an intelligible whole. Fortunately, at the time when this great mass of disconnected knowledge lies awaiting synthetic treatment, the results of X-ray analysis applied to the study of the inner structure of crystals have become available. As the result of an endeavour to apply these results to the explanation of the behaviour of alloys systems, the writer has arrived at a theory which, on a simple basis, promises to afford an easy explanation of many, if not of all, of the properties of alloys, and to afford a much deeper insight into the nature of solid solutions and of inter-metallic compounds, and through them to throw new light on the nature of inter-atomic relationships.
Article PDF
References
"Solid Solutions,” Second Annual Lecture of the Inst. of Metals Division, American Inst. Mining Engineers, New York, Feb. 1923; and “The Inner Structure of Alloys,” Thirteenth May Lecture to the Inst. of Metals, London, May, 1923. Journ. Inst. Metals, 1923, ii.
Tammaun, Zeitschr.f. Anorg. u. Allgem. Chemie, July 1919.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
ROSENHAIN, W. Solid Solutions and Inter-Metallic Compounds. Nature 112, 832–834 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112832a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112832a0