William Gilbert, who was Queen Elizabeth's personal physician but used his spare time to putter with electricity and magnetism, discovered that when iron is hot it loses its magnetism. That was about 1600. Late in the 19th Century, Pierre Curie, husband of Marie Curie, discovered that—although magnetism is gradually lost with rising temperature—an abrupt change occurs at a certain heat above which iron, nickel and cobalt cease in effect to be magnetic. This critical temperature chemists call the Curie point. These two discoveries underlie the operating principle of a new alloy announced last week...
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