Abstract
IN a paper on the “foam structure” of metals, in The international Journal of Metallography (iii., i), Prof. Quincke gives a summary of the conclusions which he states as the result of researches dating from 1858 to the present day. While Prof. Quincke's views may well claim respectful consideration, his statement of them in the present paper is far from convincing, and his effort to extend to metals his theory of foam structure of matter appears to be singularly strained. To begin with, there is the fundamental assumption that before solidification commences even in a “pure” metal the liquid becomes heterogeneous, being divided into foam-cells by minute cell-walls differing in viscosity and surfacetension from the cell-contents. Quincke supposes these to be so minute that experimental evidence of their existence cannot be obtained, and he depends for the justification of his assumption upon the power of his theory to explain all the known phenomena of the structure and properties of metals. The present paper gives an outline of this explanation, but while it is distinctly ingenious it suffers from the defect that its author is obviously incompletely acquainted with the modern developments of metallography. As a result, one finds again and again that the proffered explanations are incompatible with well-established facts. One example, out of many which might be given, must suffice.
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ROSENHAIN, W. Foam Structure of Metals . Nature 91, 124 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/091124a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/091124a0