Viscosity of Metals: Bismuth

Abstract

SINCE publishing the concluding part of my in vestigations on the viscosities of metals (Phil. Mag., April 1927, Supp.) I have come across the following data for bismuth—a metal I could not procure in the form of a wire. In an attempt to study, for a different purpose, the elastic properties of pure bismuth wires prepared from electrolytically deposited metal, J. E. Harris (Phy. Rev., First Series, 35, pp. 95–119) tabulated the values of log. dec. for different amplitudes for a wire of length 106 cm.; diam., 0.25 mm. period, 10.498 sec.; moment of inertia of the solid, 133 gm. cm.²; which on extrapolating for zero amplitude give γ₀ = 0.00978. These results give for the coefficient of viscosity of bismuth, at 23°.7 C., 13.71 × 10⁸ poises—a value quite in a line with others obtained by me with thirteen metals and seven alloys.