On the effect of heat on the chloride, bromide, and iodide of silver
In a former paper I endeavoured to prove that the iodide of silver is capable of existing in three allotropic modifications, that it possesses a point of maximum density at or about 116° C., and that if a mass of the molten iodide be allowed to cool the following effects may be observed:—( α ) At the moment of solidification a very considerable contraction takes place; ( β ) the solid on further cooling undergoes slight and regular contraction, after the manner of solid bodies in general, until ( γ ) at or about 116° C. it undergoes sudden and violent expansion, passing from the amorphous into the crystalline condition; ( δ ) after undergoing this expansion the mass, on further cooling, undergoes slight expansion, and ( ϵ ) the coefficient of contraction diminishes as the temperature decreases (or otherwise expressed, the coefficient of contraction augments with the temperature). The following experiments were made in order to examine these effects more minutely, to determine the coefficients of contraction and expansion of the iodide, and to determine the coefficients of expansion of the chloride and bromide of silver between as great extremes of temperature as should be found practicable.