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Thus a coating of metal may be de- posited on cloth, lace, or other woven fabrics, by various ingenious expedients, of which the following is an example : On a plate of copper attach smoothly a cloth of linen, cotton, or wool, and then connect the plate with the negative pole of a voltaic battery, im- merse it in a solution of the metal with which it is to be coated, and connect a piece of the same metal with the positive pole ; de- composition will then commence, and the molecules of metal, as they are separated from the solution, must pass through the cloth in advancing to the copper to which the cloth is attached. In their passage through the cloth they are more or less arrested by it. They insinuate themselves into its pores, and, in fine, form a complete metallic cloth. Lace is metallised in this way by first coating it with plumbago, and then subjecting it to the electro- metallurgic process. Quills, feathers, flowers, and other delicate fibrous substances may be metallised in the same way. prev next |