Read W.Т. Dislocations in Crystals

London: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., 1953. — 256 p.The history of dislocation theory is divided into three overlapping stages. In the first stage ingenious simple ideas emerged and gave natural qualitative explanations for many of the mechanical properties of crystals for example, the low mechanical strength. In the second stage, the explanations became more detailed and speculative and were extended to a wider range of observations; it became the fashion to invent a dislocation theory of almost every experimental result in plastic deformation. Finally, it became apparent that dislocations could explain not only any actual result but virtually any conceivable result; usually in several different ways. This led to the third stage which is a critical step-by-step development of basic theory from first principles and a search for clear-cut experimental checks of the theory; here the emphasis is on theories that apply directly in a limited area rather than comprehensive speculative theories that embrace, somewhat loosely, a wide range of phenomena. This book is an introduction to dislocations from the viewpoint of the third stage.