A nickel-iron alloy with low thermal expansion, used in precision instruments and watches.
From French élinvar, a trademark name, likely from 'élasticité invariable' (invariable elasticity). A 20th-century innovation combining scientific description with marketing.
Elinvar was invented by a Swiss watchmaker to solve a physics problem—temperature changes made watches inaccurate—so he created an alloy that stayed stable no matter the heat, literally conquering time itself.
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