1: The Production of Zinc by Electrolysis of Zinc Sulphate Solutions (1931)

Abstract

First Liversidge research lecture delivered on 24th Sept., 1931, at Science House, Sydney, arranged by the Royal Society of New South Wales under the terms of the Liversidge bequest. Reproduced by permission of the Royal Society of New South Wales from J. Proc. Roy. Soc. N.S.W., 1931, 65, M1-M48.

"As recently as 1914 there was no electrolytic zinc industry. Its development has been truly remarkable. Its position to-day is an outstanding example of the application of rigid chemical control to large scale operations. The electrolytic zinc plant is really a laboratory on a large scale in which thousands of gallons, instead of litres, of solution are handled in tanks and pumps instead of beakers and pipettes.

"Prior to 1913 literally hundreds of experimenters attempted to recover zinc by hydrometallurgical processes which, in many cases, involved the electrolysis of a solution of either zinc sulphate or zinc chloride. Accounts of their experiments are distributed throughout the literature of many countries, more especially in patent records, but it was not until 1914 that the modern electrolytic zinc process or, indeed, any commercial process involving the electrolysis of zinc sulphate solutions, can be said to have been established."