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Cyanide Storage and Gold Electroplating in the 70's

April 3, 2009

I'm hoping to talk to some one who worked in or knows about the process of gold plating used in the 70's for the manufacturing of computer parts.

I would like to know:

What type of cyanide was used in the formula?
Was it pre-mixed or was it general mixed by chemist at the computer part production company?
If mixed at the company what form did it come in? (i.e. Powder, liquid...)
What was the policy on storage and control?
Was it SECURELY stored?

I'm hoping to clear up many questions I have about the death of a family member who worked as a security guard in Burlington Ma. in 1971. Any information anyone has would be greatly appreciated!

Diana Lunday
- Ashby, Massachusetts, USA

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Hi, Diana. We can only make a wild guess as to how securely cyanide was handled at any given facility more than a generation and a half ago -- but obviously it was a completely different time. Companies tended to get nearly a free ride on safety, and workers tended to be blamed if they got hurt. The pendulum has swung 180 degrees to where the law pretty much expects workers today to act like adolescents, and requires the employer to protect them from themselves like a responsible parent.

Most facilities that did cyanide plating probably did have sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide (powder) available in drums and probably did make some additions to their tanks. In many facilities 38 years ago the storage was not secure, with the drums of cyanide powder pretty much just hanging around.

If you can be a little more forthright about the situation or where you're trying to go, we may be able to be a little more informative. Conjecturing all the potential ways in which a company might possibly have been responsible for the death of a security guard (acute accidental poisoning? chronic poisoning? shot by someone trying to steal cyanide? deliberate poisoning?) 38 years ago leads only to flights of fancy. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
April 8, 2009

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April 11, 2009

Diana

Ted will be too young to remember - but I was there gold plating computer parts in the 70s
Although I am UK based, The electronics plating industry is small and there was/is frequent contact with US so I am confident that practices were similar.

The simple answer to your questions...

In the electronics industry, cyanide was only used for gold plating. It was always used as the double cyanide Potassium Gold Cyanide (GPC). This is highly stable and nowhere near as toxic as e.g potassium cyanide. (it is still toxic)

Unless there was other types of plating, I can see no reason why there would be potassium or sodium cyanide used, although they are common lab chemicals.

GPC was (and is) supplied as solid salts which are added regularly to the plating path to replenish the gold.

Policy and security would be a matter for an individual company. But forget the cyanide; we are speaking of very expensive (and portable) material. It was not left lying about.

One point to clear up. Cyanide is common in the environment and the body has several defense mechanisms to deal with small quantities. These can be overwhelmed and you die rather quickly, otherwise you can expect a complete recovery. There are no reports in the literature of chronic poisoning from small doses or delayed reactions.

Geoff Smith
Hampshire, England

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April 11, 2009

I'm not of as tender years as you think, Geoff; I was already out of school and 4 years on the job by the time 1971 rolled around :-)

But my experience did tend to be more with general job shops than with those who did gold plating exclusively. And many job shops had 55-gallon cardboard drums of cyanide just sitting out in the aisles, although not GPC of course because of its precious metal value. Even in electronics, sodium/potassium cyanide was used in a number of applications, including silver plating, general purpose cleaners, and cleaners/brighteners specific to precious metals.

Agreed that cyanide is not cumulatively toxic, and is present in many foods. But we still have no information about the specific shop nor even about what Diana thinks might possibly have happened.

Regards,

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

Geoff and Ted are making me feel like a youngster (just kidding). As Ted said we could use a few more details. I will try to answer Diana's questions though. There were two types of gold baths used in the early 70's. Cyanide based baths and hard acid gold baths. With a cyanide based bath, potassium or sodium cyanide was added to the bath periodically to keep the free cyanide level up. Hard acid gold baths did not require free cyanide. These types of cyanides were supplied in powder form by chemical companies to the plater in various sized drums. There were no strict laws on the storage of this material. Platers and lab personnel had access to it. Even back then, platers knew cyanide was a poison and were told to wear rubber gloves ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , apron ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and eye protection (goggles ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] ) when working with it. The gold itself was in powder form, came in sealed jars, and was potassium gold cyanide. On rare occasions it was also supplied in liquid form with the gold already dissolved. It was manufactured (mixed) by a plating supplier that specialized in precious metals for electroplating. This was added to the bath(s) to maintain the gold metal content. It was normally locked up in a lab or office because of it's high value. It is highly unlikely that normal security guard duties, such as making rounds through a shop would cause any major problems unless there was a plant fire or some other catastophe. It would be much more of a health issue for platers that would disregard simple safety rules. I hope this clarifies things for you.

Mark Baker
Fellow Plater - Syracuse, NY, USA
April 20, 2009

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April 21, 2009

Marc,
Unless he was secretly plating out a little gold every evening and not using proper protective equipment.
It happens.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

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James,
Hey, you never know. Amp hour meters were a great invention if you kept up on the daily log sheet.

Mark Baker
Fellow Plater - Syracuse, NY, USA
April 26, 2009

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April 28, 2009

Some thieves are dumb and some are very smart.
The smart one carries a spare set of batteries for his 4 cell mag lite and hooks sets of 2 in series and 2 sets in parallel for 3 volts and good amps. He could even rig a spare flashlight with wires to do this and never be checked.
I read of one plater thief that plated gold on brass keys and no one thought of checking his key ring.
At $1,000 per troy oz, a tiny bit each day would augment his wages very nicely and probably never be noticed, if he was not greedy.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

If you wire a paperclip e.g. to a rack of work, there's no way of knowing. The customer is paying for the stolen gold....

George Brackett III
- Maine
May 12, 2009

Since we are off on a tangent now, I'll kick in a story too. One of my platers would wait till I went to lunch, take a liter bottle and fill it with gold solution. He claimed he was preparing to send the sample for foil testing to the supplier's lab. I later found out he was taking this "big sample" 5 days a week. He took it home in his lunch bag. Over a gallon a week or about 1 1/4 troy oz. Back then, gold was only $425.00 per oz. Lucky for us the plater was caught red handed when his wife called our company to inquire if the gold bath in her basement was poisonous. BUSSSSSTED!

Mark Baker
Fellow Plater - Syracuse, NY ,USA
May 13, 2009