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The dissolution rate of a solid metal such as Cu, in contact with molten solder can be calculated with the use of the Nernst‐Brenner equation. We describe how this equation should be correctly used in cases when the solder is in contact with both the base metal and any intermetallic compounds that have formed. We also show that the concentration of solute in the solder will generally lie between the metastable solubility limit and the equilibrium solubility limit, illustrating these ideas with reference to a system comprising Nb as the base metal and eutectic In‐Sn as the solder, where the concentration levels can be directly correlated to the crystal growth rate.

The experimental parliamentary subsidy on knights' fees and freehold incomes from lands and rents of 1431 was the only English direct lay tax of the Middle Ages which broke down. As such, this subsidy has a clear historiographical significance, yet previous scholars have tended to overlook it on the grounds that parliament's annulment act of 1432 mandated the destruction of all fiscal administrative evidence. Many county assessments from 1431–1432 do, however, survive and are examined for the first time in this article as part of a detailed assessment of the fiscal and administrative context of the knights' fees and incomes tax. This impost constituted a royal response to excess expenditures associated with Henry VI's “Coronation Expedition” of 1429–1431, the scale of which marked a decisive break from the fiscal-military strategy of the 1420s. Widespread confusion regarding whether taxpayers ought to pay the feudal or the non-feudal component of the 1431 subsidy characterized its botched administration. Industrial scale under-assessment, moreover, emerged as a serious problem. Officials' attempts to provide a measure of fiscal compensation by unlawfully double-assessing many taxpayers served to increase administrative confusion and resulted in parliament's annulment act of 1432. This had serious consequences for the crown's finances, since the regime was saddled with budgetary and debt problems which would ultimately undermine the solvency of the Lancastrian state.

IT IS a great pity that Training for the Future, the consultative document issued by the Department of Employment on the first of last month, should have been overtaken by other urgent matters that have attracted wider public interest. This has foreshortened the time for general debate before sending comments to the Department by the end of May.