Russell Effect on Evaporated Metal Films

Abstract

IN 1897, Russell¹ discovered that freshly abraded metal surfaces produce an image on photographic plates and suggested that hydrogen peroxide is responsible for this action. Although a considerable amount of work was done on this subject in the first decade of this century, the only more recent publication is a paper by Churchill². Work in the Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratories at Thorntonhall confirms that hydrogen peroxide is produced whenever fresh surfaces of certain metals are exposed to the action of water and oxygen. When, for example, aluminium, magnesium, nickel or zinc is cut under water, measurable quantities of hydrogen peroxide are produced³.