Paper, 'On the elasticity of a crystal according to Boscovich' by Lord Kelvin [William Thomson]

Description

Thomson writes: 'A crystal in nature is essentially a homogeneous assemblage of equal and similar molecules, which for brevity I shall call crystalline molecules. The crystalline molecule may be the smallest portion which can be taken from the substance without chemical decomposition, that is to say, it may be the group of atoms kept together by chemical affinity, which constitutes what for brevity I shall call the chemical molecule; or it may be a group of two, three, or more of these chemical molecules kept together by cohesive force. In a crystal of tartaric acid the crystalline molecule may be, and it seems to me probably is, the chemical molecule, because if a crystal of tartaric acid is dissolved and recrystallised it always remains dextro-chiral.'

Annotations in pencil and ink.

Subject: Chemistry / Crystallography

Received 8 June 1893. Read 15 June 1893.

A version of this paper was published in volume 54 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On the elasticity of a crystal according to Boscovich'.

Reference number

PP/22/6

Earliest possible date

1893

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil on paper

Page extent

81 pages

Format

Manuscript