III. On the alleged expansion in volume of various substances in passing by refrigeration from the state of liquid fusion to that of solidification

Abstract

Since the time of Réaumur it has been stated, with very various degrees of evidence, that certain metals expand in volume at or near their points of consolidation from fusion. Bismuth, cast iron, antimony, silver, copper, and gold are amongst the number, and to these have recently been added certain iron furnace-slags. Considerable physical interest attaches to this subject from the analogy of the alleged facts to the well-known one that water expands between 39°F. and 32°, at which it becomes ice; and a more extended interest has been given to it quite recently by Messrs. Nasmyth and Carpenter having made the supposed facts, more especially those relative to cast iron and to slags, the foundation of their peculiar theory of lunar volcanic action as developed in their work, ‘The Moon as a Planet, as a World, and a Satellite’ (4 to, London, 1874). There is considerable ground for believing that bismuth does expand in volume at or near consolidation; but with respect to all the other substances supposed to do likewise, it is the object of this paper to show that the evidence is insufficient, and that with respect to cast iron and to the basic silicates constituting iron slags, the allegation of their expansion in volume, and therefore that their density when molten is greater than when solid, is wholly erroneous. The determination of the specific gravity, in the liquid state, of a body having so high a fusing temperature as cast iron is attended with many difficulties. By an indirect method, however, and operating upon a sufficiently large scale, the author has been enabled to make the determination with considerable accuracy. A conical vessel of wrought iron of about 2 feet in depth and 1·5 foot diameter of base, and with an open neck of 6 inches in diameter, being formed, was accurately weighed empty, and also when filled with water level to the. brim; the weight of its contents in water, reduced to the specific gravity of distilled water at 60°F., was thus obtained. The vessel being dried was now filled to the brim with molten grey cast iron, additions of molten metal being made to maintain the vessel full until it had attained its maximum temperature (yellow heat in daylight) and maximum capacity. The vessel and its content of cast iron when cold were weighed again, and thus the weight of the cast iron obtained. The capacity of the vessel when at a maximum was calculated by applying to its dimensions at 60° the expansion calculated from the coefficient of linear dilatation, as given by Laplace, Riemann, and others, and from its range of increased temperature; and the weight of distilled water held by the vessel thus expanded was calculated from the weight of its contents when the vessel and water were at 60°F. We have now, after applying some small corrections, the elements necessary for determining the specific gravity of the cast iron which filled the vessel when in the molten state, having the absolute weights of equal volumes of distilled water at 60° and of molten iron. The mean specific gravity of the cast iron which filled the vessel was then determined by the usual methods. The final result is that, whereas the specific gravity of the cast iron at 60°F. was 7·170, it was only 6·650 when in the molten condition; cast iron, therefore, is less dense in the molten than in the solid state. Nor does it expand in volume at the instant of consolidation, as was conclusively proved by another experiment. Two similar 10-inch spherical shells, 1·5 inch in thickness, were heated to nearly the same high temperature in an oven, one being permitted to cool empty as a measure of any permanent dilatation which both might sustain by mere heating and cooling again, a fact well known to occur. The other shell, when at a bright red heat, was filled with molten cast iron and permitted to cool, its dimensions being taken by accurate instruments at intervals of 30 minutes, until it had returned to the temperature of the atmosphere (53°F.), when, after applying various corrections, rendered necessary by the somewhat complicated conditions of a spherical mass of cast iron losing heat from its exterior, it was found that the dimensions of the shell, whose interior surface was in perfect contact with that of the solid ball which filled it, were, within the limit of experimental error, those of the empty shell when that also was cold (53°F.), the proof being conclusive that no expansion in volume of the contents of the shell had taken place. The central portion was much less dense than the exterior, the opposite of what must have occurred had expansion in volume on cooling taken place.