An interesting article that was published in 1920, about the early history of electro silver plating and the issuing of licenses by the Elkingtons.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF ELECTRO-SILVER PLATING.
R. E. Leader, B.A. (Sheffield)
The varied and extensive use which is made of electro-plated articles in domestic life would alone merit some attention to the early history of the development of the process of silverplating. Prior to its introduction we had to rely almost entirely on similar utensils made either of silver or pewter, supplemented to some extent in the period immediately before the discovery of plating by Sheffield plate, and on spoons, forks, etc., of steel, closeplated with silver, or of the newly introducted "nickelsilver", a rediscovery of an ancient alloy said to have been known to the Chinese.
Apart, however, from its utilitarian interest, the history of electroplate emphasizes a period of very active experimenting.
Referring to the allied art of copper electrotyping discovered about the same time (1838), apparently independently by Thomas Spencer, of Liverpool, and Jacobi, in Russia, Alfred Smee writes in 1842, in the preface to his "Elements of Electrometallurgy" (2nd edition) : "... There is not a town in England that I have happened to visit, and scarcely a street of this metropolis, where prepared plasters are not exposed to view of the purpose of alluring persons to follow the delightful recreation afforded by the practice of electrometallurgy."
It is not within the scope of this paper to trace the earlier history of electrochemistry. Suffice it to mention that in 1833-4 Faraday propounded his laws of electrolysis, and in 1836 J. E. Daniell, professor of chemistry in King's College, London, described the first constant current battery.
Starting from this period, one can trace that branch of the subject which had for its definite purpose the development of processes of manufacturing scope and value.
Nowhere was this inception more sedulously pursued than in Birmingham, where gilding by older methods had long been practiced. There the Elkingtons and others, aided by skillful metallurgical chemists like Ogle Barratt and Alexander Parkes, and by clever operators such as the Millwards and Thomas Fearn, were striving to exploit in the larger atmosphere of the workshop the fascinating results of experimenters. By employing methods set out in a series of patent specifications (1836 to 1838), the cousins George Richards and Henry Elkington had made such advance in gilding as to crush competitors adhering to older processes out of the field.
Another patent, due to Barratt (1838), but taken out jointly by him and Elkington, claimed that they had invented certain improvements in coating and coloring metals never before practiced, of which they were the first and true authors. Up to this time and, as will be seen, even later, the pioneers concentrated themselves chiefly on the solutions employed, laying little stress on electrical action. B. Woodcroft, in his official "Abridgement of Patents", has pointed out that "Although no mention is made of electricity in the above specification, the immersion of the metal in a solution of zinc, in contact with zinc or amalgam of zinc, forms a galvanic current, and thus employs electric force."
At this stage George Elkington, engaged on the problem of silverplating, was sufficiently encouraged to form a business agency of an intimate kind with Benjamin Smith, of London. A correspondence between August, 1839, and June, 1840, shows many difficulties encountered and strenuous efforts to surmount them.
Smith sends a gilt candelabrum as a pattern of one to be made and silvered; also four candlesticks are ready for plating; and he is told that although there is uncertainty how soon the improvement can be effected, coming success with a new system, different from any hitherto used, is positively anticipated. The coating of silver might, it was explained, be varied and could be deposited thick enough to be chased. But things did not run smoothly, and by June, 1840, it had to be confessed that the result was disappointing. It is fairly clear that the new system now referred to was a process devised by Ogle Barratt, assigned to the Elkingtons and covered by letters patent applied for on March 25, 1840, "For improvements in coating, covering, or plating certain metals." The six months allowed before lodging the specification were full of anxiety, and when that time had nearly expired Mr. Elkington was in London in consultation as to the final form of the claim. Then it was found that another discoverer was in the field.
This was John Wright, a young Birmingham surgeon. Many fables have been woven respecting his origin. He was the scion of a substantial family long settled in the district where Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire meet, but his father having removed to Kent, he was born on the Isle of Sheppy. His school was at Brampton, near Doncaster, his apprenticeship was served with a surgeon at Rotherham, and after a course of study at several medical schools, he established himself in practice in the Bordesley district of Birmingham in 1833, being then 23 years of age. There he patiently pursued the experiments in metallurgical chemistry to which he had long been devoted, and on one happy day, acting it is believed on a hint obtained from the writings of Scheele, found in cyanide of potassium the solution of the problem of satisfactory silver deposition. A gilded chain and a silvered plate were the first tangible evidences of his success. But the mere exhibition of these was not enough; the thing had been done, but silversmiths in Birmingham and Sheffield lacked faith enough to give financial assistance without knowing how it had been accomplished. This Wright resolutely declined to disclose, and in the end went up to London to take out letters patent on his own account.
There is no trace that he had applied to the Elkingtons, which is curious, since theirs might seem to have been the most obvious market. But here what looks like pure luck stepped in and took control. For George Elkington put up at the London hotel which Wright had chosen, and one patent agent was acting for both. Thus they met, and find themselves in the same boat, common sense required that they should pull together. By the agreement eventually signed completion of the contract was made dependent on a series of trials and proofs. Not until these were carried out were the Elkingtons to know the precise nature of the mystery they were buying.
The trials satisfactorily established the value of Wright's process and vindicated his representations, but as the same principle was deemed to underlie both his methods and Elkingtons, the variations being only in the solutions, it was decided to embody Wright's emendations in Elkingtons' specification. This subsequently proved to be a serious embarrassment and anxiety, for competent authorities advised that the validity of the patent was thereby so jeopardized as to imperil its power to resist any determined assault. The document was hurriedly completed and was lodged only in the last days of the six months of grace. The patent is dated September 25, 1840, and is numbered 8,447. It stands as the master patent, the basis of all success in electrosilver plating. There is no need here to retell its details, but it is necessary to note that in such claims as it made to the use of a galvanic current, the single cell arrangement was implied. Its nonmention of Wright's name follows, of course, from what has been said as to his contribution being incorporated in the particulars lodged in support of the letters patent granted to George and Henry Elkington on March 25, 1840.
Legal protection having been secured, the patentees were confronted with the greater problem how to press home their advantage by successful manipulation in the workshop, and by a remunerative output of goods of a quality commending themselves to the public. The enthusiasm of the inventors found no reflex in outside opinion. Presages of a revolution in silverware were received with chilly incredulity, and the derogatory word "brummagen," as a synonym for shoddiness, was freely used by the cynics. The suspicion that the coating would prove to be only a temporary and unstable veneering was shown to be more than a prejudice when early samples were returned on shopkeepers' hands as defective. Barnards, of London, among the earliest to take out a license, reported that the battle they had to fight for a process in illfavor with the trade was so hard that they despaired of making headway. The manufacturers of old Sheffield plate laughed scornfully at any idea that their craft was in danger from a bubble that must soon burst. Before long they had to whistle rather loudly to keep up their courage.
Without absolutely accepting Dr. Gore's assertion that for at least seven years the process was not remunerative, there can be no doubt that success or failure long hung trembling in the balance. Josiah Mason, speaking of the time, some 18 months after the start, when he joined the firm, was accustomed to describe the warnings of his friends against the embarkation of his capital in a speculation that could end only in ruin.
The Elkingtons, however, with unabated faith, set about perfecting the process in their own works, and in seeking to induce licensees to take it up. In the latter respect their success was disappointingly slow, and with the exception of an extension of the arrangement with the aforenamed Benjamin Smith, giving him a monopoly of the London trade for certain scheduled articles, and of one or two minor licenses for special details, it was not until 1843 that things began to move. The patentees had naturally made great efforts to enlist the co-operation of the Sheffield silverplaters. There were protracted negotiations with the two leading firms –Roberts and Creswicks–but their only result was a large mass of correspondence which survives to show on the one side a lack of confidence in the future of a highly speculative adventure, and in the validity of the patent; and on the other an exaggerated estimate of the value of severely restricted licenses. The Sheffield firms, with their showrooms full of temporarily unsaleable old plate, and with their workshops idle, had abundant reasons for desiring the failure of the new competitor. But the vendors, instead of tempting them against their will and cautious judgment, alienated them further by the severity of their terms. And having thus lost those who would have proved their most valuable allies, they had to place their process in the hands of a class of makers who had nothing to lose but everything to gain by adventuring into an enlarged field. Thus, in Sheffield especially, it was the Britannia metal smiths who, with experience in the manufacture of domestic wares in baser metals, could without much risk, yet with prospect of a wider outlook, add an electroplating plant to their factories; and the terms to them were adapted to their individual circumstances in many varied forms.
It was John Harrison, a Britannia metal smith who on June 13, 1843, took out the first license in Sheffield, the fourth granted for plating in general. He engaged as operator an out-of-work table knife forger, George Walker, who in the course of duties as caretaker at a chemical class, had dabbled in the students' electrical experiments. At Harrison's expense he was sent to Birmingham to be initiated into the plating process. William Carr Hutton, who had established in Sheffield a branch of his father's Birmingham business–"closeplating" on steel and the making of spoons and forks in "Improved German silver," otherwise called "British plate" –obtained a license a day after Harrison's.
By the end of two years the latter had paid royalties on articles plated of the net selling value of £5,311, and although Hutton's output was smaller he reported sufficient improvement and success to encourage working with more confidence. Such was the position of electroplating in Sheffield when George Walker threw up his engagement with Harrison and took out a license for himself and a partner, Samuel Coulson. In this an abortive attempt was made to prevent Harrison working not only for his own customers, but "on hire" for the trade. Not having works ready, Walker was unable to commence manufacturing until the end of September, two years after Harrison and Hutton had been in the market. From that time, although the number of Sheffield licenses increased but slowly, the output kept pace with the growing popularity of the wares. And when the old silver firms found themselves compelled to supply electroplate or to lose customers they compromised to the extent of obtaining by deputy for sale what they could not even yet bring themselves to make.
It has been stated that the first intentions of the Elkingtons was to rely rather on the activities of licenses than on their own manufacture for the supply of the market, but the reluctance of trades to take up the work, and the difficulties of establishing some uniform system, indicated by innumerable drafts of alternative plans, soon forced on the pioneers the conviction that they must show their confidence in the mercantile value of their patent by vigorous example and energetic popularizing of the new wares. When this had become evident they acted with decision. Leaving the original shops to their former uses, great extensions were made for setting up a large and complete electroplating plant; and a spacious showroom was added as an object lesson to the still incredulous.
But beyond the problem of setting the industry on the broad road of prosperity there was constant anxiety as to the soundness of its monopoly. Unless the validity of the patent could be upheld the sanguine anticipations of its holders would be blown to all the winds of heaven; and from the first it was challenged from many quarters, while the smaller fry of infringers were active in piracy. In this respect there was no hesitation or variation in the plan of the defensive campaign. There runs through all the records an ordered regularity of procedure, almost monotonous in its repetition. Whenever improvements of manifest value were offered on reasonable terms they were bought outright.
Source: The Metal Polisher, Buffer, and Plater - 1920
Trev.
.