Preliminary measurements of the thermal conductivity and expansion of ice

It seems appropriate to refer to some work in progress at the National Physics Laboratory which has resulted from Dr B. J. Mason’s interest in the therm properties of ice crystals. When he inquired about the possibility of ice beir anisotropic as regards thermal conductivity and thermal expansion, it was realize that the answer was not evident in the published literature. Indeed, neither property appeared to have been measured for ice over any extensive range temperature since the work of Jakob & Erk (1928, 1929). Accordingly, it seem desirable to undertake new determinations of these properties on ice and 1 interest to include some parallel measurements on heavy ice, solid D2O. However some comparative measurements by Landauer & Plumb (1956) have since bee noticed which indicate that the conductivity in the direction of the c-axis may 1 about 5% greater than normal to it.