"jim rozen" wrote in message
...
In article , Robert Swinney says...

Jim,
Just goes to show ya how much you know. Ted probably knows how to build
a
TDR that'll show minute differences in the gold plating.

I do know that all gold-plating is not the same. Trompeter
(the connector guys) understand that you cannot strike with
nickel first under the gold, like many folks do.

You actually can see the distortion from that.

Jim


That's an interesting observation. If you don't know, the reason the
nickel is plated to begin with is to prevent migration of the gold to the
base metal. In my years of refining I discovered it was pretty much common
practice to find nickel under gold plating when stripping. Sir T.K. Rose
concluded long ago that gold and silver have an affinity for certain metals
and will migrate to them when in close proximity, and they need not be
molten or even hot. Ingots of pure silver and pure gold end up
transferring to one another when in contact, for example. Nickel prevents
the migration. If what you say is correct, unless gold is plated quite
thick (I have no idea what that may mean) , there is likely no benefit in
using it at all, because, over time, and it's not long, it simply vanishes.
One problem gets replaced with another. Comments?

Harold