EXPERIMENTS IN THE CITADEL. 33 



young fellow in the business promised not only to 

 smuggle these articles into the citadel, but also to 

 execute promptly future orders, and conscientiously 

 kept his promise. 



Accordingly I set up a small laboratory in my 

 barred but roomy cell and was quite contented with 

 my situation. Fortune favoured me in my work. 

 I remembered that some time ago I had tried ex- 

 periments with my brother-in-law Himly in Gottingen 

 for the production of pictures according to the process 

 made known a little while before by Daguerre, and 

 that hyposulphite of soda employed in these experiments 

 had dissolved otherwise insoluble salts of gold and silver. 

 I determined therefore to proceed on these lines, and to 

 test the applicability of such solutions for electrolysis. 

 To my unspeakable joy the experiments succeeded in 

 a surprising manner. I believe it was one of the happiest 

 moments of my life \vhen a German silver tea-spoon, 

 which I had dipped into a beaker filled with a solution 

 of hyposulphite of gold and connected with the zinc 

 pole of a Daniell battery, whilst the copper pole was 

 connected with a louis d'or as anode, changed in a 

 few minutes into a golden spoon of the finest and 

 purest lustre. 



Galvanic gilding and plating was then, at least 



c5 c5 i c> 7 



in Germany, still quite new and naturally caused a 

 sensation in the circle of my comrades and acquain- 

 tances. I almost immediately concluded a bargain with 

 a Magdeburg jeweller, who had heard of the marvel and 

 visited me in the citadel, w r hereby I sold him the right 



