Abstract
PROF. PERRY and I had not to wait long after the publication of his article “On the Age of the Earth” (NATURE, January 3, 1895, pp. 224–227) to learn that there was no ground for the assumption of greater conductivity of rock at higher temperatures, on which his effort to find that the consolidation of the earth took place far earlier than 400 million years ago, is chiefly founded. In a letter of date January 13, most courteously written to me by Dr. Robert Weber in consequence of his having seen by my letter to Prof. Perry of December 13, that we were anxious to find how far his experimental results regarding differences of thermal conductivity and specific heat at different temperatures could be accepted as trustworthy, he tells me that he had made farther experiments on an improved plan, and that on the whole his investigations do not seem to prove augmentation of conductivity with temperature; and he kindly gives me, with permission to communicate to NATURE, the following results, hitherto unpublished, of experiments which he made in t e years 1885 and 1886
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KELVIN The Age of the Earth. Nature 51, 438–440 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/051438c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051438c0
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