Actually, the kids chemistry book that I read as a 10 year old or so had a very clear picture in it of one of the electrodes made of a guilder (dutch coin at the time) and noted it worked better than other coins because of its high nickel content.
That may have been coincidence but it certainly wasn't new knowledge to me that Nickel works well as an electrode when splitting water in Hydrogen and Oxygen.
I wished I'd kept my books from childhood and I'd be able to show you. It wasn't a particular fancy set either, just a bunch of test tubes, some leads to attach to a 4.5 V flat battery (I haven't seen those in ages either) and a bunch of basic chemicals.
That may have been coincidence but it certainly wasn't new knowledge to me that Nickel works well as an electrode when splitting water in Hydrogen and Oxygen.
I wished I'd kept my books from childhood and I'd be able to show you. It wasn't a particular fancy set either, just a bunch of test tubes, some leads to attach to a 4.5 V flat battery (I haven't seen those in ages either) and a bunch of basic chemicals.