"Joseph Gwinn" wrote in message
...
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

Your probably thinking of the Baghdad batteries.

These were ancient ceramic jars with a tar seal and a sheet of copper and an
iron rod inside.

Speculation in some circles goes something like this:

"What the hell are these things?"
"Could be a battery."
"What the hell did they need a battery for, they didn't have any transistor
radios?"
"They must have invented electroplating!"

Anyone who has made a battery for a science fair project knows that iron and
copper have only about 3/8 v potential between them and make a pretty crappy
battery.

If you wanted to do any plating, you would need at least a dozen of them in
series. If the ancient Mesopotamians knew the difference between series and
parallel.

Paul K. Dickman