In article ,
Abrasha wrote:

Joseph Gwinn wrote:



Before the advent of electroplating, precious metal smiths used the
extremely poisonous technique of "fire gilding" to gold plate silver
objects. This was done with gold amalgams.

I had not heard of this technique.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilding#Fire-gilding

[snip]

If it was before electroplating, it
was back when an old man was 45, so they probably didn't manage to die
of the mercury fumes.

They did in fact die of the cumulative effects of serious Mercury
poisoning. BTW, the expression "Mad as a hatter" comes from the use of
Mercury in the making of felt for the hat industry.

Good lord. That would be able to kill them way before the diseases
usual in the day.


[snip]
I recall reading that the ancients knew how to electroplate, although
they didn't understand how or why it worked.


"The early history of electroplating may be traced back to around 1800.
A university professor, or in modern terms: a chemist, Luigi Brugnatelli
is considered as the first person to apply electrodeposition process to
electroplate gold. Brugnatelli was a friend of Allisandro Volta (after
whom the electric unit "volt" has been named) who had just a short time
before discovered the chemical principles that would make possible the
development of "voltaic" electrical cells. Volta's first actual
demonstration of that was called "Voltaic Pile". As a consequence of
this development, Brugnatelli's early work using voltaic electricity
enabled him to experiment with various plating solutions. By 1805 he had
refined his process enough to plate a fine layer of gold over large
silver metal objects."
http://electrochem.cwru.edu/ed/encyc...lectroplat.htm


"Modern electrochemistry was invented by Italian chemist Luigi V.
Brugnatelli in 1805. Brugnatelli used his colleague Alessandro Volta's
invention of five years earlier, the voltaic pile, to facilitate the
first electrodeposition. Brugnatelli's inventions were repressed by the
French Academy of Sciences and did not become used in general industry
for the following thirty years."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroplating#History

The articles I read many years ago were talking about ancient Egypt or
China, at least 1000 years before the 1800s, well before the invention
of the battery by Volta in Italy. What was described was a battery and
plating cell all in one. It might have been for copper plating. It was
clear that ancients did not understand why the thing worked, only how to
replicate it.

Joe Gwinn