86 ELECTROLYSIS. 



delivered before the International Congress of Electricians in 

 1881 by M. Henri Bouilhet, the eminent chemist of the firm of 

 Messrs. Christofle and Co. : 



" If nickel-plating has regained favour only during the past 

 few years, it is not because better or new solutions have been 

 found, but because the electric industry has become enriched 

 with a source of electricity better, more constant, and infinitely 

 cheaper than the batteries. 



" We mean the Gramme machines, which have caused a real 

 industrial revolution, and which have rendered inestimable 

 services in electro-chemical depositing manufactures. 



" We are speaking with a certain authority, for it was in 

 Messrs. Christofle's works that M. Gramme made his first 

 attempt at an industrial application. 



" A long time before the date of M. Gramme's invention, 

 as far back as 1854, Messrs. Christofle had made some attempts 

 at substituting magneto-electric machines for their batteries. 



"They tried the Alliance machines, but without any ap- 

 preciable success, and their price, which at that time was as 

 high as 12,000 francs for a machine doing the same amount 

 of work as a Gramme machine of 2000 francs would, some time 

 later, effect, was a matter for consideration. 



" Later on the Wilde machine came into practice, but its 

 defective construction and its heating, which rendered its action 

 intermittent instead of continuous, did not justify Messrs. 

 Christofle in completely doing away with batteries. 



"In 1871, having been brought in communication with 

 M. Gramme, and being attracted by the principle of his con- 

 stant-current machine, they placed before him the following 

 programme for the installation of their electric current supply : 



" Construct a machine depositing 600 grammes of silver 

 per hour on a given surface, in four baths joined in multiple 

 arc, and revolving at a speed of 300 revolutions per minute. 



" This is an occasion for paying the homage due to the 

 inventor. 



"His studies were so advanced, his calculations so certain 

 and precise, that after three months' delay he installed at our 

 works a machine constructed on exactly the conditions of 



