Unpublished paper, 'Experiments made to determine surface conductivity for heat in absolute measure' by D MacFarlane

Description

The experiments described in this paper were made in the Physical Laboratory of the University of Glasgow, under the direction of Sir William Thomson, during the summer of 1871. A set of similar experiments were made in 1865. A copper ball, 2 centimetres radius, having a thermo-electric junction at its centre, was suspended in the interior of a double-walled tin-plate vessel which had the space between the double sides filled with water at the atmospheric temperature, and the interior coated with lamp-black. The other junction was in metallic contact with the outside of the vessel, and the circuit was completed through the coil of a mirror galvanometer. One junction was thus kept at a nearly constant temperature of about 14° Cent., while the other had the gradually diminishing temperature of the ball.

Annotations in ink throughout. Includes letter dated 26 July 1871 and a diagram of MacFarlane's experimental setup.

Subject: Thermodynamics

Received 8 August 1871. Abstract read 11 January 1872. Communicated by William Thomson.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 20 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'Experiments made to determine surface-conductivity for heat in absolute measure'.

Reference number

AP/54/8

Earliest possible date

1871-1872

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil on paper

Page extent

16 pages

Format

Diagram
Manuscript