3. On the Connection between Temperature and Electrical Resistance in the simple Metals

Extract

About a fortnight since I mentioned to Professor Forbes that the resistances of the simple metals to the passage of electricity seemed to be very nearly in proportion to their absolute temperature, this relation being especially manifest for those values of the resistances determined by M. Arndtsen.

Professor Forbes informed me that this coincidence had already been observed by Professor Clausius, and that an abstract of his paper was given in the Philosophical Magazine for November last. On referring to Professor Clausius's original paper, it would seem that the coincidence had suggested itself to him as a remarkable similarity occurring between the rate of increase (due to temperature) of the electrical resistance of those metals, and that of the volume of a gas under constant pressure.