Posted by Steve Inman on February 01, 2001 at 21:56:25:
In Reply to: Re: cryogenic tuba freezing posted by Cryotuba on February 01, 2001 at 19:57:14:
When you freeze and then warm metal, the metal does not change its property. The only way to change the atomic/molecular property of metal is to significantly heat, and then cool the metal. This is a process called annealing. It results in state changes of the molecular structure of the metal (say from face-centered-cubic to body-centered-cubic, vise-versa, or some other, similar crystaline change). It does not work the other way. Sorry, but that's just the way metals behave. If folks are experiencing real changes in playability of their instruments following this type of treatment, it must be explained by some mechanism other than changes in the property of the metal. However, I have not heard yet a convincing, scientific explanation of a reason this treatment should make any difference in the playability of any metal instrument. We discussed this to death a few months ago on the tubaeuph forum.
Steve "see the old thread on the tubaeuph forum" Inman
(The source of my information is a company metalurgist with a BS in Physics, MS in metalurgy, and over 20 years of industrial experience in this field. He also plays trumpet, but I don't hold that against him!)