THE CORROSION OF IRON 



By H. E. A. 



In the first of the series of articles on this subject in this 

 journal ! reference was made to a number of experiments on 

 the rusting of iron carried out by Messrs. Lambert and Thomson 

 with very special care, and exception was taken to their 

 conclusions in the following terms : 



" There can be little doubt that although Lambert and 

 Thomson were successful in carrying the purification of iron 

 very far, they were not sufficiently careful to secure the removal 

 of carbon dioxide from their apparatus. In view of the results 

 obtained by others, it is inconceivable that they would have 

 arrived at results such as they describe had they done so. And 

 it is not difficult to see where they went astray. Whilst they 

 took great care to prepare oxygen free from acid impurity by 

 electrolysing a solution of baryta and all water introduced into 

 the apparatus was carefully distilled from an alkaline solution, 

 they evidently were not alive to the difficulty of removing 

 carbon dioxide entirely from glass surfaces, although this has 

 long been recognised ; a very large area of glass was exposed 

 within their apparatus, especially in the vessel in which the 

 oxygen was stored." 



Mr. Lambert has continued the inquiry and has described 

 his later work in a communication to the Chemical Society 

 published in October last ; he has also discussed the subject 

 in an article published in the Chemical News of April 13. 



In repeating his experiments, he has used practically the 

 same apparatus as before but has introduced a variety of 

 additional refinements and precautions. The conclusion he 

 arrives at is as follows : 



" The results go to show that none of the criticisms is valid 

 and that the claim which is founded on the experiments is 

 substantially accurate — namely, that commercial forms of iron 

 will undergo corrosion quite readily in contact with pure water 



1 Science Progress, No. 20, April 191 1.— See also S. P., October 191 1 and 

 January 1912. — Ed. 



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