RECORDS OF MEETINGS OF 1908 497 



The following business was then transacted: 



Mr. Frank M. Chapman was nominated to the Council for Chairman 

 of the Section and Vice-President of the Academy for the year 1909. 

 The Section then adjourned. 



Rot W. Miner, 



Secretary. 



SECTION OF ASTRONOMY, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 



November 16, 1908. 



Section met at 8:15 P. M., Vice-President Hering presiding. 



The minutes of the last meeting of the Section w^ere read and approved. 



The following program was then offered: 



E. F. Kern, On the Electrolytic Refining of Iron. 



William Campbell, Use of Metallography in Certain Problems in 



Ore-dressing. 

 William Campbell, A Visit to Nova Scotia; the Collieries and the 



Iron and Steel Plants. 



Summary of Papers. 



Dr. Kern first reviewed the previous work on this subject. First, electro- 

 plating iron upon the surface of engraved copper plates to obtain a hard 

 facing; then the work of Burgess and Hambueschen, of Gee, of Neuburger 

 and von Klobukow, of Skrabel, of Maximowitsch, of Cowper-Coles. The 

 electrolytes which have been most generally used are neutral solutions of 

 ferrous sulphate or ferrous chloride containing respectively the sulphates 

 or chlorides of ammonium. Smoother deposits were obtained by the 

 presence of magnesium sulphate in an electrolyte and ferrous ammonium 

 sulphate; by stirring the electrolyte ; at a temperature of 60-70° C. Oxida- 

 tion retarded by addition of glycerine. Precipitation of basic salts prevented 

 by adding just sufficient acid to clear the solution. The iron deposited was 

 a hard brittle crystalline mass, over 99.9 % pure. 



From experiments performed in the Department of Metallurgy at Colum- 

 bia University, it was found that neutral ferrous fluosilicate electrolytes are 

 not suitable, as they are slowly decomposed, with the separation out of silica. 

 Good deposits w^ere obtained from neutral electrolytes containing either 

 8 % iron as Fe SO4 or 6 % Fe and 3 % Na as sulphates or 8 % Fe and 4 % 



