“…[3] has not been observed experimentally. A considerable volume of experimental evidence (15,19) shows that reduction of thermal ferric oxide films proceeds completely to soluble ferrous ions rather than to "FeO" (normal or abnormal) whose existence, even in transient form, has never been detected during cathodic reduction of oxide films on iron. Recent precise and successive quantitative cathodic reduction of duplex Fe~OJ FefO~ thermal films on iron (18) at pH = 7.65 has revealed in turn ~-Fe._.O:,, -/-Fe~O.~, and Fe,O, in that order but with no suggestion of any "FeO" compound either normal or abnormal.…”