The history and inventor of chrome plating?

A. Hi
Cyanide was never used in hard chrome plating, or in the chrome plating step of copper-nickel-chrome decorative plating. Chromic acid is a very powerful oxidizing agent, and cyanide is a powerful reducing agent.

Please tell us the situation you are in and why you are trying to resolve this answer. Are you suffering adhesion problems? People and their situations are interesting; abstract questions tend to be dry & dull, so they rarely elicit enthusiastic reader response. :-)

Struggling to read between the lines, small amounts of cyanide, especially potassium ferrocyanide ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , were used in some proprietary chromate conversion coatings on aluminum and zinc & cadmium plating. I don't think 2004 was a magic year, nor that there was an EPA rule; but European pressures and just general social pressures to limit this toxin well might have led to reduction/elimination of cyanide in some or all of these proprietary chromate conversion coating formulas around that time ... which has something to do with chrome & cyanide and trends & rumors, but probably nothing to do with hard chrome plating. Good luck.

Luck & Regards,

"Electrodeposition of Chromium from Chromic acid Solutions"
by George Dubpernell"

on AbeBooks

or eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. 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 a very important name in the development of chrome plating) entitled "A History of Chromium Plating". Good luck with your assignment.

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Ed. note-- Update Feb. 2014: That article, "A History of Chromium Plating" is currently available on-line at www.pfonline.com/articles/history-of-chromium-plating

A. You can find good article in Modern Electroplating (2nd or 3rd 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!

A. Hannah,

I suggest that you also look at the article, RECENT ADVANCES IN THE COMMERCIAL ELECTRODEPOSITION OF CHROMIUM (by Charles H. Proctor; accessed at
www.nmfrc.org/subs/history/may1927.cfm^ ^{http://sterc.org/subs/history/may1927.cfm#two}
where your question was discussed in detail.

BTW, B. E. Curry was my grandfather.

Janet

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Ed. note Jan 2018: That article has been moved to the new URL indicated.

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Thanks Janet! I found that paper absolutely fascinating!!

Apparently Fink was allowed to patent the process, but Charles Proctor & many others did not agree whatsoever with the issuance of the patents, claiming that chromium had been successfully plated countless times from numerous solutions in the decades before Fink; and that it was firmly established as prior art. Thanks again for this great glimpse into the past -- it has made me re-examine, with great skepticism, what I had previously accepted without qualification as firmly established fact.

I worked for several years for M&T Chemical Co. (now Atotech), which was apparently the beneficiary of this patent grant, and for whom Dubpernell also worked ... I had always accepted Dubpernell's narrative on the history of chrome plating, but I think I no longer do!   :-)

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
April 2015

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April 4, 2015

I looked at the article suggested by Ted Mooney. When I compared it to the dates in Robert Coe, Puritan (found at https://archive.org/stream/robertcoepuritan00bart/robertcoepuritan00bart_djvu.txt)

"vi. Anne Harriet, b. June 4, 1879, graduated at Smith College in 1902; m. at Durham, N. H., Sept. 5, 1910, Berton Edwin Curry, b. in Bloomington, Ind., Aug. 24, 1879, son of Charles William and Sarah Ann (McConnell) Curry.

Mr. Curry graduated at Indiana University in 1904 and afterwards pursued post-graduate studies at Cornell University. He is now (1910) chemist of New Hampshire College Agricultural Experiment Station at Durham, N. H."

You will note that Sargent likely earned his MA under B E Curry, then attended Curry's alma mater, Cornell, continuing Curry's research.

I think there were some hard feelings about patents and royalties. B. E. Curry returned to Bloomington with my mother and her 4 brothers where he became a successful business presence.

Janet

Janet Hammond [returning]
- Mimbres New Mexico USA

A. Hello,

They started to use chrome plated parts on cars and motorcycles was in the beginning of 1927. But some small parts were plating with chrome a little earlier.

Regards,

Some first class infos on history of chromium plating:

http://sterc.org/subs/history/hist.cfm

Hope it helps and good luck!