Note on Heuslerʼs magnetic alloy of manganese, aluminium, and copper

In 1903 Fr. Heusler published the discovery of an alloy consisting of manganese, aluminium, and copper, which, in spite of the fact that it contained none of the so-called magnetic metals, iron, nickel, or cobalt, possessed striking magnetic properties. Short accounts of work on the subject by Heusler and some other experimenters appeared, but on the whole the discovery seems to have aroused comparatively little interest in this country before August, 1904, when R. A. Hadfield exhibited a specimen of the alloy at the Cambridge meeting of the British Association. At the beginning of the winter session 1904 an attempt was made to obtain some of this alloy for the Physical Laboratory of Glasgow University, with the view of determining magnetic curves for the material, and of otherwise extending our knowledge of this interesting manganese bronze.