This monograph attempts to establish a connection between the structure and physicomechanicaJ properties of the deposit, the rate of reduction of the metallic ions, and the adsorption and occlusion of surface-active substances and hydrogen, and presents the experimental results of the authors as well as the data of other investigators. The authors do not pretend to have given an exhaustive treatment of all aspects of this basic problem since many of the questions touched on here are under investigation in solid state physics and various fields of physical chemistry. v THE FOLLOWING SOVIET JOURNALS CITED IN THIS BOOK ARE AVAILABLE IN COVER-TO-COVER TRANSLATION Russian Title English Title Publisher Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR Proceedings of the Academy of Consultants Bureau Sciences of the USSR, Section: Chemistry Bulletin of the Academy of Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR: Consultants Bureau Otdelenie khimicheskikh nauk Sciences of the USSR: Division of Chemical Sciences Stal' Stal (In English) Iron and Steel Institute Uspekhi khimii Russian Chemical Reviews The Chemical Society (London) Zavodskaya laboratoriya Industrial Laboratory Instrument Society of America Zhurnal analiticheskoi khimii Journal of Analytical Chemistry Consultants Bureau USSR Zhurnal fizicheskoi khimii Russian Journal of Physical The Chemical Society (London) Chemistry Zhurnal obshchei khimii Journal of General Chemistry Consultants Bureau USSR Zhurnal prikladnoi khimii Journal of Applied Chemistry Consultants Bureau USSR Zhurnal tekhnicheskoi fiziki Soviet Physics - Technical American Institute of Physics Physics CONTENTS xi Introduction --. --. -. -. ---. --. -. -. ------. --. -.