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The 1935 primary paper The Spin-Isomerization of Hydrogen at Paramagnetic and Diamagnetic Surfaces, pp. 1251–1252, describes evacuated catalyst samples cooled before admitting molecular hydrogen. Gas samples were analyzed in a glass cell in liquid air: a heated platinum wire and Wheatstone bridge converted changes in thermal conductivity into electrical resistance readings, calibrated against normal hydrogen.^[ref]

Its comparison of oxide surfaces supplied a control: specimens exhibiting strong paramagnetism converted the gas much faster than the comparison exhibiting diamagnetism despite all adsorbing molecular hydrogen. Contact time, pressure, and temperature were recorded. This supports a role for surface magnetic properties beyond adsorption alone; it does not identify every microscopic surface site or directly measure nuclear-spin orientations.^[ref]

The inference chain is preparation, contact with a specified surface, then a calibrated bulk transport readout of composition. It is distinct from a direct calorimetry measurement of heat capacity: transport and heat capacity can both depend on the spin populations, but they are different measured quantities. Changing the catalyst's own surface structure, introducing magnetic impurities, or changing the detector's gas pressure can confound an uncalibrated comparison. The free-rotor partition functions predict equilibrium populations and stored energy, not the conversion rate on a particular surface.

Volume magnetic susceptibility is the dimensionless ratio of longitudinal magnetization to internal magnetic field intensity in a linear regime through the origin. Positive response gives paramagnetism. Always distinguish magnetization $M=\mathcal{M}/V$ from total magnetic moment $\mathcal{M}$: dividing by volume changes the normalization. Mass-normalized and mole-normalized values likewise require the mass density or the volume per amount of substance before comparison with ${\chi }_v$.

In the existing Pauli paramagnetism formula, $M$ denotes total magnetic moment, and $g(E_F)$ is the total spin-summed density of states. Relabel that response asHere ${\mu }_B$ is the Bohr magneton. If its $B$ is a prescribed vacuum/applied magnetic flux density $B_0={\mu }_0{H}_{\mathrm{app}}$, the dimensionless apparent slope is ${\mu }_0{\chi }_B^{\mathrm{vol}}$. It agrees approximately with intrinsic ${\chi }_v$ only when the demagnetizing field correction and magnetic feedback are negligible. The existing Curie's law formula also uses a total-magnetic moment, $B$-derivative convention; its $N$ counts moments rather than giving a number density.