AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 483 



any difference between such articles and the best English sterling silver. 

 When nickel is to be silver plated, make a solution by dissolving silver in 

 nitric acid and water. Then attach a copper wire to it, and bring it in 

 connection with the negative pole of the battery. At the same time place 

 a piece of silver in the liquids in connection with the positive pole of the 

 battery. If you desire to plate with gold, place the article in a solution 

 of that metal, prepared in the same manner. 



Plating can now be applied to many useful purposes, much cheaper than 

 formerly, when if a peculiar model was rec{uired, moulds of plaster, wax, 

 &c., were necessarily prepared ; they can now be superseded by a compo- 

 sition made of molasses and glue, which is perfectly flexible, and may be 

 moulded and used in a solid piece, or several pieces. 



If ovir saucepans and other culinary vessels were coated with silver by 

 this process of plating, we might save much coal and wood, as silver is a 

 for better conductor of heat, than tin or iron. Beer barrel faucits should 

 be always plated to prevent the formation of verdigris. Our iron railings 

 around parks and public buildings, should invariably be coated with zinc, 

 by electro plating, which, at a small cost, would protect them indefinitely 

 from destruction, hj. exposure to atmospheric influences. 



I have used a zinc boat for years, and it does not show the least sign of 

 change, as zinc is perfectly insoluble in water, and should therefore always 

 be used on the parts of mill and steamboat wheels exposed to the lasting 

 influence of that element. 



Gold and silver gilding, that has consigned thousands of splendid work- 

 men to early graves, in consequence of the use of mercury, ought at once 

 to give way to electro plating, which may be most advantageously applied 

 instead. Magnetoplating possesses advantages over electro plating, because 

 it is effected without galvanism, salts or acids, at a moderate cost, and is 

 capable of plating articles of any size . 



Eelief letters, ornaments for inscriptions, figures, panels for brooches, 

 designs for mats, centres for books, ornaments fur covers, and all similar 

 beautiful work, are now formed by eleetro depositing in England, at so low 

 a price, as to compete with the most inferior stamped work. 



There are three admirable electrotype processes. The first consists to the 

 use of platina wires in the place of copper, and of preparing a skeleton 

 figure so as to resemble the outline of the cast desired to be obtained, by 

 means of which process, statues, busts and groups can, by a single opera- 

 tion, be produced in full relief. The second is a process for galvanizing 

 or coppering iron to any thickness without the cyanide bath, which is not 

 only dangerous but expensive. 



The third is a process for strengthening electrotypes, the principle of 

 which is, to leave an opening in the back of the thin electrotype obtained 

 by precijiitating, and to place in it various pieces of brass, which, on being 

 melted with an oxyhydrogen blast, becomes diffused over the interior sur- 

 face of the copper, without injuring it, and thereby imparting to it the 

 strength of cast-iron. 



