Cerium: Anhydrous Cerous Chloride Electrolysed in an Iron Pipe at 200 Amperes (Hirsch, 1911)

The hard part of making cerium is a chloride with no water and no oxide in it. Hirsch boiled purified cerium ammonium nitrate down with hydrochloric acid for weeks, dried it in a stream of dry hydrogen chloride, then electrolysed the melt in a plain iron pipe, which served as the cathode. Result: a fused ingot of cerium metal (580 g in one run), about 98 % cerium. Source: A. Hirsch, The Preparation and Properties of Metallic Cerium, Trans. Am. Electrochem. Soc. 20 (1911), pp. 65-85. Chlorine comes off the anode; hydrogen chloride is corrosive; the original seal used asbestos. Picture: Figs. 7 and 8 of the paper.