185 
Ordinary Meeting, March 20th, 1877. 
E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., President, in the chair. 
“ On the Action of Sea- Water upon Lead and Copper,” 
by William H. Watson, F.C.S., communicated by Dr. B. 
Angcjs Smith, F.B.S. 
While numerous experiments have been made and pub- 
lished from time to time as to the action of distilled water 
and various saline solutions upon lead and copper, so far as 
I know very few have been published as to the action of 
sea-water upon them, hence my concluding to record the 
following : — 
The only published researches I have been able to find 
bearing upon this question are those by Dr. Crace-Calvert 
and R. Johnson, “On the Action of Sea-Water upon certain 
Metals and Alloys” (Manchester Lit, and Phil, Soc., 1865), 
and later those by Kaiser, “On the Action of Sea-Water on 
Lead” (Arch. Pharm. (3), vi., 405), from which he says that 
after exposing strips of lead to sea-water for four days no 
lead could be detected in the water. He, however, does not 
mention the quantity of metal or the quantity of water 
used in the experiment, neither does he mention the method 
of testing. 
The experiments of Calvert and Johnson were conducted 
as follows : — 20 square centimetres of each metal, cleaned 
with great care, were taken and placed in separate glass 
vessels, immersed in equal volumes of sea- water. After one 
month the plates were taken out, and any compounds that 
had adhered to the surface carefully removed; the plates 
were then dried and re weighed — the loss being estimated 
and taken as the quantity of lead dissolved. To render the 
results obtained of more practical value, calculations were 
made, and the following table constructed by them, showing 
Proceedings — Lit. & Phil. Soc. — Vol. XVT. — No. 11 . — Session 1876 - 7 . 
