The Molecular Tactics of a CrystalKelvin, William Thomson, Baron
Science
The Molecular Tactics of a Crystal
Kelvin, William Thomson, Baron
Crystallography, Mathematical
The six sectors of the face between these diagonals lie alternately
on opposite sides of their plane, and are bordered by six arcs
of plane curves lying on three pairs of parallel planes. This
tetrakaidekahedronal partitioning fulfils the condition that the
angles between three planes meeting in an edge are everywhere each
120°; a condition that cannot be fulfilled in any plane-faced
tetrakaidekahedron. Each hexagonal wall is an anticlastic surface of
equal opposite curvatures at every point, being the surfaces of minimum
area bordered by six curved edges. It is shown easily and beautifully,
and with a fair approach to accuracy, by choosing six little circular
arcs of wire, and soldering them together by their ends in proper
planes for the six edges of the hexagon; and dipping it in soap
solution and taking it out.
§ 20. Returning now to the tactics of a homogeneous assemblage, remark
that the qualities of the assemblage as a whole depend both upon the
character and orientation of each molecule, and on the character of
the homogeneous assemblage formed by corresponding points of the
molecules. After learning the simple mathematics of crystallography,
with its indicial system[7] for defining the faces and edges of a
crystal according to the Bravais rows and nets and tetrahedrons of
molecules in which we think only of a homogeneous assemblage of points,
we are apt to forget that the true crystalline molecule, whatever its
nature may be, has sides, and that generally two opposite sides of each
molecule may be expected to be very different in quality, and we are
almost surprised when mineralogists tell us that two parallel faces on
two sides of a crystal have very different qualities in many natural
crystals. We might almost as well be surprised to find that an army in
battle array, which is a kind of large-grained crystal, presents very
different appearance to any one looking at it from outside, according
as every man in the ranks with his rifle and bayonet faces to the front
or to the rear or to one flank or to the other.
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