Notes

Abstract

“THE Diffusion of Metals” is the subject of the Royal Society's Bakerian Lecture, which is to be delivered to-day by Prof. Roberts-Austen, C.B., who has obtained some singular experimental results connected with the mobility of solid metals. Many experimenters in this country, especially Prof. Graham and Lord Kelvin, have studied the diffusion of gases and saline solutions, and Prof. Roberts-Austen has measured the rate at which certain metals will penetrate each other. He finds that solid gold, for instance, will diffuse into, and move about slowly in lead, even at the ordinary temperature of the air, and with considerable rapidity if the lead be warmed, though far from melted. Evidence as to the presence of wandering atoms in a solid, possesses much interest now that views as to the nature of metals and other solids have been extended by the discovery that certain rays of light will penetrate them.