Super-cooled Water

Abstract

THE viscosity of water has been determined down to -9° C., at which temperature it is quite fluid, and I was surprised to find that water drops suddenly chilled (without crystallisation) to -17° became hard—that is, true water glass. In Beilby's “Aggregation and Flow of Solids” (1921), p. 195, we find: “When a small drop of water was placed on a glass slip which had previously been cooled to -12° it instantly froze and became like a hemispherical lens, perfectly transparent and colourless. Under the microscope it showed no signs of crystalline structure.…” The term ‘froze’ is a little ambiguous, but from the context can only be taken to indicate hardening.