GEORGE

See also:

• RICHARDS, ALFRED BATE (182o-1876)
• RICHARDS, HENRY BRINLEY (1819-1865)
• RICHARDS, WILLIAM TROST (1833-1905)

RICHARDS

See also:

• GEORGE RICHARDS ELKINGTON (1801-1865)

ELKINGTON (1801-1865)  , founder of the electroplating industry in England, was born in Birmingham on the 17th of October 18o1, the son of a spectacle manufacturer . Apprenticed to his uncles, silver platers in Birmingham, he became, on their death, sole proprietor of the business, but subsequently took his cousin, Henry Elkington, into partnership . The science of electrometallurgy was then in its infancy, but the Elkingtons were quick to recognize its possibilities . They had already taken out certain patents for the application of electricity to metals when, in 1840, John Wright, a Birmingham surgeon, discovered the valuable properties of a solution of cyanide of silver in cyanide of potassium for electroplating purposes . The Elkingtons purchased and patented Wright's process, subsequently acquiring the rights of other processes and improvements . Large new works for electroplating and electrogilding were opened in Birmingham in 1841, and in the following year Josiah Mason became a partner in the firm . George Richards Elkington died on the 22nd of September 1865, and Henry Elkington on the 26th of October 1852 .