History
The first to mention premelting might have been Michael Faraday in 1842 for ice surfaces. He compared the effect which holds a snowball together to that which makes buildings from moistured sand stable. Another interesting thing he mentioned is that two blocks of ice can freeze together. Later Tammann and Stranski suggested that all surfaces might, due to the reduction of surface energy, start melting at their surfaces. Frenkel strengthened this by noting that, in contrast to liquids no overheating can be found for solids. After extensive studies on many materials it can be concluded that it is a common attribute of the solid state that the melting process begins at the surface.
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