3607. Silver Solution for Plating Copper, Brass, and German Silver

3607.      Silver Solution for Plating Copper, Brass, and German Silver. Cut into small pieces a twenty-five cent piece, and put it into an earthen vessel with 1/2 ounce nitric acid. Put the vessel into warm water, uncovered, until it dissolves. Add 1/2 gill of water and 1 tea-spoonful of fine salt, and let it settle. Drain off and repeat, adding water to the sediment until the acid taste is all out of the water. Add finally about 1 pint of water to the sediment, and 4 scruples cyanide of potassium. Put into the solution a piece of zinc about 2 inches long, 1 wide, and 1/8 in thickness. After cleaning, immerse the article to be plated in the solution about half a minute, letting it rest on the zinc. "Wipe off with a dry cloth and repeat once. Polish with buckskin. The thickness of plate can be increased by repeating.

3608. Silvering Hooks and Eyes

3608. Silvering Hooks and Eyes. A patent has been granted in Bavaria, for the following method of silvering hooks and eyes made of iron ware. The articles are suspended in dilute sulphuric acid until the iron shows a clean bright surface. After rinsing in pure water, they are placed in a bath of a mixed solution of sulphate of zinc, sulphate of copper and cyanide of potassium, and there remain until they receive a bright coating of brass. Lastly, they are transferred to a bath of nitrate of silver, cyanide of potassium and sulphate of soda, in which they quickly receive a coating of silver.

3609. To Plate Common Copper Buttons

3609. To Plate Common Copper Buttons. Mix 2 ounces chloride of silver, 1 ounce corrosive sublimate, 3 pounds table salt, and 3 pounds sulphate of zinc, with water, into a paste. The buttons are cleaned, smeared over with the mixture, and exposed to a moderate degree of heat, which is afterwards raised nearly to redness, to expel the mercury which has united with the silver from the corrosive sublimate. The silvered surface is then cleaned and burnished.

3610. Simple Process for Silvering

3610.     Simple Process for Silvering. This is an improved process for silvering copper, brass, and other alloys, by means of a so-lution of silver in cyanide of potassium; the difference from the usual method consists in the use of zinc-filings, with which the objects are coated; when the silvering solution is applied, an immediate deposition of a much more durable character taking place. The filings are easily removed by rinsing in water, and may be used repeatedly for the same purpose. Metallic iron may be coated with copper in the same manner, by substituting for the silver a solution of copper in cyanide; and over this copper deposit a coating of silver may be applied.

3611. Cold Silvering

3611.      Cold Silvering. Mix 1 part chloride of silver with 3 parts pearlash, 11/2 parts common salt, and 1 part whiting, and rub the mixture on the surface of brass or copper (previously well cleansed), by means of a piece of soft leather or a cork moistened with water and dipped into the powder. 1 part precipitated silver powder, mixed with 2 parts each cream of tartar and common salt, may also be used in the same way. When properly silvered, the metal should bo well washed in hot water slightly alkalized, and then wiped dry.