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Can you send me the history and founder of chrome plating?  

July 28, 2007

can you send to me the history and founder of chrome plating..

Hannah F
student - Philippines

Hi, Hannah. Commercial chrome plating was developed by Fink & Eldridge at Columbia University in 1924, and was based on a 1920 paper by Dr. George J. Sargent. In very simple terms, Sargent discovered that in order to electroplate chromium you need almost exactly 1 part of sulfuric acid to 100 parts of chromic acid. More sulfuric acid or less and it just won't plate. Because of this discovery, the most conventional chromium plating process is still called "the Sargent bath".

If you can find a copy, the June 1984 issue of Plating & Surface Finishing magazine contains an article by George Dubpernell (also an important name in the development of chrome plating) entitled "A History of Chromium Plating". Good luck with your assignment.

Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

You can find good article in Modern Electroplating (2. or 3. edition).Founder of chromium plating is german Bunsen(1854.).First commercial processes are those by Fink Eldridge and Liebreich(1923/24).Hope it helps and good luck!

Goran Budija
- Zagreb, Croatia

The chapter by George Dubpernell in Modern Electroplating (1942 'Special Volume') also mentions Junot de Bussy, who received French patent 3,564 in 1848. However, neither he nor Bunsen was commercially successful [apparently using trivalent chromium]. Chromium plating isn't even mentioned by J. H. Van Horne's 1897 book, Modern Plating. In Dubpernell's words, "In the chromic acid solutions, order was finally brought out of chaos and the essential requirements were first clearly set forth by Colin G. Fink."
'PROCESS OF ELECTRODEPOSITING CHROMIUM AND OF PREPARING BATHS THEREFOR,' Colin G. Fink, US Patent 1,581,188 (granted in 1926). Freely available on-line.

A history of chromium plating by Anders Sundman is of course available on-line: http://www.finishing.com/Library/anderschrome.html
Of worth noting [my paraphrased translation] is an earlier near-miss:
"Another German, A. Geuther, seems to have successfully plated chromium onto a platinum thread in 1855 using chromic acid prepared using sulfuric acid, although the importance of the sulfuric acid probably present in the solution wasn't recognized."

Ken Vlach - Goleta, California