Ice and Related Topics

One of Onsager's most sustained interests was unravelling the intricacies of crystalline water and related hydrogen bonded crystals. Onsager told me that he had been working on the ferroelectric transition in potassium dihydrogen phosphate in the late 30's before he shifted to the Ising model. However, it was not until 1960 that he published his first major paper on the electrical properties of ice [52]. This was rapidly (for Onsager) followed by another major paper in 1962 [58] and he also chose to summarize these papers in his acceptance speech for the G. N. Lewis award [57], consistent with ice being foremost on his mind at that time. His Nobel speech [75] also emphasized ice — he even presented an animated movie to illustrate the nature and motion of charged defects that carry the electrical current. This speech also indicates how ice fit naturally with his more widely recognized interests in electrolytes and irreversibility.

It is tempting to speculate why Onsager published his first major papers [52] and [58] where he did. These papers do contain quite a lot of review material and perhaps he thought they were not appropriate for primary research journals. This was a shame, because many researchers could not easily obtain these papers and perhaps thought that Onsaager did not value this work highly. Reprinting these papers here may be a belated remedy…