A set of empirical rules put forward in 1926 by the British metallurgist William Hume-Rothery (1899–1968) to describe how one metal dissolves in another metal. He found that one metallic element will not dissolve in another if the difference in their atomic radii is greater than 15% or if the electronegativities of the two elements differ substantially. Also, A metal with a lower valency is more likely to dissolve in one with a higher valency, than vice versa. These rules were subsequently justified by the quantum theory of electrons in solids.