130 
“On the Action of nascent Hydrogen on Iron/’ by 
William H. Johnson, B.Sc. 
In a paper read before the Society last year, I showed that 
a piece of iron immersed in hydrochloric, sulphuric, or other 
acid which evolves hydi’ogen by its action on the metal, on 
breaking gives off bubbles of gas from the surface of the 
fracture. It subsequently occurred to me that these 
bubbles might be produced by subjecting the metal to the 
action of nascent hydrogen for some time, and without the 
aid of acid at all. 
To test this I connected two pieces of iron wire 'OT diam. 
respectively with the copper and zinc plates of a battery 
of 50 Daniell’s cells and immersed them in a vessel of 
Manchester town’s water at a distance of one inch apart. 
On closing the current, bubbles of hydrogen were given off 
from the wire connected with the zinc, but none from the 
wire connected with the copper, the oxygen liberated at the 
pole apparently forming oxide of iron which in 12 hours 
formed a thick smudge at the bottom of the vessel. After 
24 hours the surface of the wire connected with the zinc 
was unchanged, but on moistening the fracture bubbles 
were given off abundantly just as if it had been immersed 
in acid. The other wire, on the contrary, though much 
oxidised and eaten away, did not give off bubbles when 
broken. 
A variety of experiments were made in the same way 
with pieces of wire varying from 3 to 20 inches long and 
immersed from 5 to 24 hours, ^ inch to 4 inches apart in 
pure Manchester town’s water, all with similar results- 
With this exception, that when the wire connected with the 
zinc was of steel, no bubbles were visible to the naked eye, 
just like steel after immersion in acid. Twenty-four hours 
in a warm room restored the iron to its original state, and 
no bubbles were seen on fracturing it. 
The Wcxter in the last experiments was then replaced by 
