Invar, the near-zero expansion alloy
Invar, la aleación de dilatación casi nula
- Date
- 1895 · confidence high
- Place
- International Bureau of Weights and Measures, Sèvres, France
- Credited to
- Charles Édouard Guillaume
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Guillaume discovered that certain iron-nickel alloys barely expand with temperature and named them Invar ("invariable"); the finding earned him the 1920 Nobel Prize in Physics.
What it led to
- Precision clocks and compensated pendulums
- Geodetic measuring instruments and precision metrology unaffected by temperature