X-ray Diffraction Study of Molten Tellurium An X-ray diffraction apparatus with focusing geometry used for the investigation of free surfaces of melts and a computer programme for the analysis of scattering intensities are discribed. The results of our measurements on molten tellurium at 480, 550 and 620 °C are presented and compared with a model of the temperature change of the short range order in molten tellurium as described by Cabane, Tourand and Breuil 14-17. The important result is that the number of nearest neighbours is approximately 3 at all the 3 temperatures. This suggests that the short range order is changing at the melting point from a chain structure to an antimony-like structure.