Where the world gathers for
plating, anodizing, & finishing Q&As since 1989




-----

Inventor of electroplating process

 

Thomas Oliver Warwicks of England is supposed to have invented the electroplating process. Do you have any data on him?

Mike Mitchell
- Manchester, England

---

 

I hope you're not a relative of his because, if you are, you may not like this reply :-)

In over 30 years in this industry, I never heard the name. Some people say electroplating was invented in Baghdad in the B.C.s. But the generally acknowledged "father" of electroplating is Michael Faraday, whose codification of the science via "Faraday's Law" helped make possible the electroplating industry.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

---

 

My information suggests that Fr. Nicholas Callan of Manooth College was also heavily involved in its invention at a similar time.

John Smith
- Dublin

---

2006

Luigi V. Brugnatelli invented electroplating in 1805. He performed electrodeposition of gold, using the Voltaic Pile, discovered by his colleague Allessandro Volta, in 1800. Brugnatelli wrote about electroplating in the Belgian Journal of Physics and Chemistry. Forty years later, John Wright of Birmingham, England, discovered that potassium cyanide was a suitable electrolyte for gold and silver electroplating.

Angela Cooper
- Loxley, Alabama