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The mechanisms by which chlorides are removed from marine iron artifacts during washing processes were investigated. By comparing the decomposition rates of FeOCl and the chloride extraction rates it was shown that, under most conditions, the chloride removal process is diffusion controlled. The implications of this were examined and it was established that the treatment times depend on a number of factors which can vary greatly, both between artifacts from different shipwrecks and also those from the same wreck. This variation must be taken into account when comparing the efficiencies of different washing techniques. A method for evaluating relative efficiencies was devised and used to compare different standard treatment procedures. The best chloride extraction was found to occur in those treatments which involved chemical reduction of the corrosion product.
North et al. (Wed,) studied this question.