A record of recent progress towards the correlation of the chemical composition, the physical constitution, and the electrical properties, of solid dielectric materials

The chemical and physical complexity of most of the solid dielectric materials which find application in electrical engineering practice makes an understanding of their electrical behaviour an extremely difficult matter, since the phenomena underlying conduction processes even in simple solid materials are not fully understood. A considerable amount of work has been carried out during recent years in an endeavour to clarify this behaviour, and in consequence there has been a very noticeable tendency to develop new materials on a scientific basis. The present-paper is an attempt to gather together in summarized form the published information relating to this work, so that the engineer who is unable to keep in direct touch with the question may be made aware of this recent progress. This résumé on solid dielectric materials should be regarded as an extension of a previous résumé (Journal I.E.E., 1934, vol. 75, p. 93) dealing with liquid dielectrics.