Papers - Theory of Metallic Crystal Aggregates (With Discussion)

It has long been supposed that when crystalline materials are comminuted the energy used in the production of increasingly smaller grain sizes is not entirely dissipated as heat but that a certain portion is "stored" as a part of the internal energy of the material. This portion usually has been called the "surface energy" of the particles. The practical interest of the Bureau of Mines in this subject in connection with the energy requirements of crushing processes has led to the author's attempt to measure the "stored" energy in finely divided calcite by heat-of-solution methods1.t The experiments on calcite showed that "storage" of energy could not be proved for this material, because fine grinding caused a lack of chemical homogeneity evidenced by loss of carbon dioxide and subsequent adsorption of water on the surfaces of the calcite particles. When thermochemical correction was made for composition changes the corrected heat of solution was less for fine material than for coarse. Continuation of the experimental work into the problem of comparing work and heat in the deformation of metallic crystals, where the calorimetric difficulties were less, showed, however, that in the case of copper and aluminum a real discrepancy between work and heat could be shown. Similar results had previously been obtained by Farren and Taylor2 and Hort3 and more or less simultaneously with the author's work by Rosenhain and Stott4 and by Taylor and Quinney9 The results obtained by the different investigators were not satisfactorily consistent, but the experiments of Taylor and Quinney constitute by far the best figures obtained to date. The previous paper1 presented evidence to show that if energy is stored in the surfaces of crystals the densities of fine crystals should differ