1. Motion of a Palladium Plate during the formation of Graham's Hydrogenium

Abstract

Graham, in continuing his exhaustive researches on diffusion, has recently examined the relation of gases to various colloid septa. The remarkable discovery of Deville and Troost of the permeability of platinum and iron by hydrogen at a red heat, he lias expanded into a general examination of the relative rates of passage, at high temperature, of the various gases through different metallic septa. Further, he has proved that different metals have a specific occluding power over certain gaseous elements, retaining them in combination at low temperatures, although the absorption took place at a red heat. Of the many astonishing discoveries made during the course of these investigations, probably the most remarkable is the occlusion of hydrogen by palladium. This metal, whether in the form of sponge or hammered foil, when heated and cooled in an atmosphere of hydrogen, absorbed between six and seven hundred times its volume—increasing to the enormous occlusion of 982 volumes, when the metal used had been deposited by voltaic action.