Quartz helix magnetic susceptibility balance using the Curie-Cheneveau principle

A quartz spring balance is described which can be used to measure the magnetic susceptibility of submilligram amounts of sample. The magnetic field is supplied by a moving permanent magnet, and the susceptibility is determined by the deflection of the spring observed in a measuring microscope. The apparatus is calibrated by a comparison standard (platinum) and results are shown for platinum, nickel aluminate, lead, manganese, and sucrose. A precision of better than 2% can be obtained on submilligram amounts of paramagnetic substances having a magnetic susceptibility of from 1 to 50×10⁻⁶ emu/g. On weakly paramagnetic or diamagnetic substances comparable precision can be obtained on less than 10 mg amounts of sample.