Electro-plated Copper Plates.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 237, 26 May 1874, Page 6

Electro-plated Copper Plates.

Seme time since the experinieilt waS tried j on the Thames by one or two of onr. batteries as to how copper plates, electro-plated befbV.c ! being laid on the battery tables,'would act as far as their attractiveness in catching any particles .of gold passing ''over, them. F6r j some time a doubt,, and a very, reasonable one, was experienced as to whether 'the el.ee- j tro-plating would, when brought' into contact' with mercury, peel off,"if not entirely, at! leas'; in patches. The sharp trial the plates electro-plated in use at the Moauatairi bat-1 tery have stood has proved beyond,' the ! least shadow of a doubt the superiority of. copper electro-plates for battery tables over! those dressed in the ordinary. Way, : The ] electro-plates at the Moauatairi battery were ] hardly treated fairly as to the position oil the ] tables in which they were put. The 'tables ! are what in battery parlance is termed step ■ —the electro-plates arc placed on the bottom section of the tables, and thus -would, in the case with other plates, catch the least of gold, the two above them having had first chance. Not at all strange to say, the electro-plates in the Moauatairi have caught the most gold, their surface having more affinity to the gold passing over them. How, or why, is a question for scientists, which should be by them immediately taken up. It is all very well to depend on the blankets, surely it is a " bird in hand," and saves further anxiety as to its ■ caging. The use of electro-plates on our bat-

tery tables wm urged long and long ago. 'W’hat the achigt ~%st cost may bo the winter ’ is-uuiuiprmpd ; but if, whop a plate, as it is first, laid down,, immediately ..attracts gold, ,why pot use them! , By no known method of dressing copper plates} in tlip. old st'y|e;'is tlio •objdet e/ibctild, ; ’ We hipst heartily commend’ ulcvti’O'platea to-tho,attention of up-country nnahiigeysj !,t,hp water they' use, is in iilmpst ovpry instance, the best they can get, but the worst they.could possibly use. The writer by experience caught more gold after it had passed over plates and blankets, in contrivances twenty yards away from tho battery, than in it. —Thames Star.