Anomalous diamaǵnetism of bismuth

Abstract

Bismuth when electrically or mechanically colloidalised shows a fall in its diamagnetic susceptibility value. Doubts were raised by Prof. Bhatnagar as to whether this fall in value could not be due to oxidation. It was shown by me that though a large part of this value was certainly due to oxidation, still there was a decrease in value which could be explained only by attributing it to reduced particle size, as in the case of graphite.