A Note on Magnetostriction in Single Crystals of Iron and Nickel

Abstract

The magnetisation of a single crystal of a ferromagnetic substance is accompanied by a distortion of the crystal which depends on the intensity and direction of magnetisation. Webster has shown that the magnetostriction in unsaturated states may be accounted for in an entirely satisfactory manner by making the assumption (for which the evidence is entirely convincing) that at ordinary temperatures an apparently unmagnetised crystal consists of small regions magnetised to saturation in various directions, so as to give no resultant magnetisation to the whole crystal, and that these regions possess natural directions of easy magnetisation.