PLATING is the art of covering baser metals with a thin plate of silver, either for use or for ornament. It is said to have been invented by a spur-maker, not for show, but for real utility. Till then the more elegant spurs in common use were made of solid silver, and, from the flexibility of that metal, they were liable to be bent into inconvenient forms by the slightest accident. To remedy this defect, a workman at Birmingham contrived to make the branches of a pair of spurs hollow, and to fill that hollow with a slender rod of steel or iron. Finding this a great improvement, and being desirous to add cheapness to utility, he continued to make the hollow larger, and of course the iron thicker and thicker, till at last he discovered the means of coating an iron spur with silver in such a manner as to make it equally elegant with those which were made wholly of that metal. The invention was quickly applied to other purposes; and to numberless utensils which were formerly made of brass or iron are now given the strength of these metals, and the elegance of silver, for a small additional expense.

The silver plate is generally made to adhere to the baser metal by means of solder, which is of two kinds; the soft and the hard, or the tin and silver solders. The former of these consists of tin alone, the latter generally of three parts of silver and one of brass. When a buckle, for instance, is to be plated by means of the soft solder, the ring, before it is bent, is first tinned, and then the silver-plate is [7:18:10]gently hammered upon it, the hammer employed being always covered with a piece of cloth. The silver now forms, as it were, a mould to the ring, and whatever of it is not intended to be used is cut off. This mould is fastened to the ring of the buckle by two or three cramps of small iron wire; after which the buckle, with the plated side undermost, is laid upon a plate of iron sufficiently hot to melt the tin, but not the silver. The buckle is then covered with powdered resin, or anointed with turpentine; and, lest there should be a deficiency of tin, a small portion of rolled tin is likewise melted on it. The buckle is now taken off with a tongs, and commonly laid on a bed of sand, where the plate and the ring, whilst the solder is yet in a state of fusion, are more closely compressed by a smart stroke with a block of wood. The buckle is afterwards bent and finished. Sometimes the melted tin is poured into the silver mould, which has been previously rubbed over with some flux. The buckle ring is then put amongst the melted tin, and the plating finished. This is called by the workmen filling up.

But when the hard solder is employed, the process is in many respects different. Before, the plate is fitted to the iron or other metal, it is rubbed over with a solution of borax. Stripes of silver are placed along the joinings of the plate, and instead of two or three cramps, as in the former case, the whole is wrapped round with small wire; the solder and joinings are again rubbed with the borax, and the whole is put into a charcoal fire till the solder be in fusion. When taken out, the wire is instantly removed, the plate is cleaned by the application of some acid, and afterwards made smooth by the strokes of a hammer.

Metal plating is when a bar of silver and another of copper are taken of at least one equal side. The equal sides are made smooth, and the two bars fastened together by wire wrapped round them. These bars are then sweated in a charcoal fire, and after sweating, they adhere as closely together as if they were soldered. After this they are flattened into a plate between two rollers, when the copper appears on one side and the silver on the other. This sort of plate is named plated metal.

French plating is when silver-leaf is burnished on a piece of metal in a certain degree of heat. When silver is dissolved in aquafortis, and precipitated upon another metal, the process is called silvering.