THE corrosion of metals is a serious problem confronting
the industrially advanced countries of the world. Modern developments and war-time experiences have made it possible to manufacture metals at lower costs than before. Secondly, new sources of minerals have been discovered, thereby enabling each nation to increase its capacity for the production of metals. Iron and steel, aluminium,
copper and zinc are amongst the metals in common
use. In practice all of them are liable to corrode in various environments : atmosphere, soil and liquid
medium. The loss of metal due to corrosion necessitating
repair or removal of metal parts is one of fundamental importance affecting the economy of a country. The cost
of corrosion control is rather high, the estimated
figures per annum for some of the countries being U.S.A.' close to 10 billion dollars, U.K.2 600 million pounds, Canada3 500 million dollars, Australia4 100 million pounds. and India5 154 crore rupees. It becomes incre-asingly important to preserve available metals in use since a time may come when some of them approach exhaus-tion. From the available figures it has been indicated
that immediate attention should be given to the non-
ferrous metals, and greater attention to ferrous res-ources. In the case of iron the losses due to corrosion
are estimated to be about 7.6 per cent a year. Corrosion
control methods, therefore, assume great importance6
