Abstract
IN NATURE of February 21 (p. 390) Prof. W. R. Dunstan states that rusting of iron takes place in the presence of water and oxygen when every trace of carbonic acid has been removed. To a certain extent this is the result obtained by our chemist, but his experiments proved conclusively that rusting must be due to an admixture of carbonic acid, for with improved precautions against its presence rusting was enormously reduced, and, this is important, confined to one or two spots. In some cases this local rusting took place where the steel samples rested on the glass vessels, and it was but natural to suppose that this local corrosion was brought about by silicic acid of the glass. The obvious precaution was to arrange an iron bowl in the centre of the glass vessel into which water could be distilled, but although this apparatus was constructed, it was not used, because if corrosion can be caused by the silica of the glass, then it may also be caused by specks of exposed slag in the iron or by the oxidised specks of manganese sulphite which can be seen with the microscope, or by other impurities. Corrosion may even be brought about by carbonic acid occluded in the iron. In order to settle the question, the experiment should be repeated with a piece of iron of absolute purity.
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STROMEYER, C. The Rusting of Iron. Nature 75, 461 (1907). https://doi.org/10.1038/075461b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/075461b0
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