Heat transfer
Thermal conductivity of different metals

You remembre you gave me a wire of five metals all drawn thro the same hole Viz. one, of gould, one of silver, copper steel and iron. I supplyed here the two others Viz. the one of tin the other of lead. I fixed these seven wires into a wooden frame at an equal distance of one an other... I dipt the seven wires into this melted wax as deep as the wooden frame... By taking them out they were covred with a coat of wax... When I found that this crust was there about of an equal thikness upon all the wires, I placed them all in a glased earthen vessel full of olive oil heated to some degrees under boiling, taking care that each wire was dipt just as far in the oil as the other... Now, as they had been all dipt alike at the same time in the same oil, it must follow, that the wire, upon which the wax had been melted the highest, had been the best conductor of heat.... Silver conducted heat far the best of all other metals, next to this was copper, then gold, tin, iron, steel, Lead.
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