X-ray data concerning some manganese-copper alloys

Until recently the only commercial method of producing metallic manganese in large ammounts sic was a pyrometallurgical process. Producing a metal of about 97% purity, it was not very satisfactory. With the advent of a process for producing a metal of 99.9 plus % purity electrolytically, introduced by the United States Bureau of Mines, for the first time was there a sufficient quantity of pure manganese available for alloy use. The manganese-copper system was chosen for study because of the inconsistencies in the reports of previous investigators, and because of the properties alloys of these components possess, such as magnetism, high damping capacity, and good electrical resistance, coefficient of expansion and heat conductivity. Several ordered lattices and compounds have been reported by some investigators and work is now being done to determine their effect of the properties. To date, very little work has been done on alloys made from electrolytic manganese and, as they promise to be of prime importance in future non-ferrous metallurgy, it is felt that the structure should be more thoroughly investigated --Introduction, page 1