Magnetic Properties of Single Crystals of Iron

Abstract

IN a letter to NATURE, May 29, p. 753, Messrs. Honda, Kaya and Masuyama give a short account of some magnetic properties of single crystals of iron. In this laboratory I have investigated various magnetic phenomena in single crystals. In the Proc. Roy. Soc., 107, 496, 1925, an account of the variation of the susceptibility with the direction in the crystal has been given, and it may be mentioned that later a theoretical explanation of the effect has been given by Mahajani (Camb. Phil. Soc., 23, 136, 1926). In the Proc. Roy. Soc., 109, 570, 1925, experiments on the effect of crystal structure on magnetostriction have been described. This work is similar to that now described by Honda, Kaya and Masuyama, and their results are in very good agreement with those of the present writer. The rods used by them were much larger than those of our experiments, and their accuracy may be higher, particularly in the measurement of the magnetic intensity, but our results are more definite in that the rods used by us were orientated, within two or three degrees, parallel to a (100), (110), or (111) crystal axis. For example, we showed definitely that for the (111) direction there was only a contraction, a fact surmised by Honda, Kaya and Masuyama.