IMPORTANT INVENTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 17, 12 September 1912, Page 7

IMPORTANT INVENTION.

A NEW ZEALANDER’S SUCCESS

If the average Auckland citizen were told that America,!! scientists seriously described an invention, recently made and perfected in that city, as the greatest advance in the electrical deposition of metals the modern world has seen, lie would rub his eyes and begin to wonder what it was. Yet this is the well considered verdict seriously recorded by leading American men of science regarding the discovery known as “Voltite.”

And not only have they stated their opinion in words, but they 7 have 1 tacked it in cash, having paid for the American rights of this invention a sum of 100,000 dollars (£20,000) in cash and TOO,OOO dollars (£80,000) in shares. This the New Zealand shareholders in the Voltite Company, Limited, will receive from the American Voltite Company, which is capitalised at 2,000,000 dollars (£400,000), and was registered in New York by the United States and Mexican Trust Company. Thousands of shares in this company were subscribed in a few days, and this principally among the men who had witnessed the demonstrations given byMr Arthur Temple Firth, the inventor, before different metallurgical societies, electro-platers’ associations, chemical societies, and the scientific staff and students of Columbia University. If detailed description were written of the exurberant reception given to Mr Firth (who is well known ini this city)by his follow scientists it would seem needlessly exaggerated. On all hands the invention is described as epoch making. Hitherto the deposition of metals on metallic surfaces has been costly and lahourions, and a simpler method seemed incapable of attainment. It has remained for a Non Zealander to solve a problem that has puzzled scientists the world over.

Mr Firth’s invention must not be confused with ordinary methods of depositing superficial layers of substances by friction or adhesion, nor must it be confounded with the many cleaning preparations placed on the market ; on the contrary, it is far more than this, and possesses a true chemical and electrical action. It may be here added that none of the Yoltite powders contain any mercury, the deposition in each case being the pure metal claimed for it. From a scientific point of view, not only the results obtained, but also the actual process of deposition, is the same as has hitherto required an elaborate plant and equipment for the method coinmonly known as electro-plating.

To the layman, it may occur that if the method ,is so good, it should bo an easy method to ascertain by analysis of the poWdhr whaV'if Contains, and imitate the. jiiycntimi successfully. In this he wqpidjrhc in eryor,’ for before a chemical analysis can be made it is necessary to add certain ingredients to the subject for examination. lint owing to the peculiar nature of this preparation, such mixture immediately sets into effect the chemical action which has been alluded to, thereby rendering the, process otf, analysis an impossible one. On realising this, and having tested the matter to their own satisfaction, the leading American scientists have accorded the inventor a magnificent reception, the opinion being expressed by men of the highest repute, such as Professors Richards, Tucker, and Proctor, and Dr. Orosvctier, to name only a few of the leading American scientists, who have pronounced in favour of the new invention, that it is the greatest discovery made in the history of this particular branch of industry, that its earning powers are enormous, and that its utility is unending.

Mr Firth has been inundated with invitations to demonstrate this invention before various scientific bodies and the universities of several States, and a warm reception has been accorded him \Vihcnevcr lie has lectured. Public curiosity has been aroused to an extraordinary extent by the many newspaper articles that have appeared giving particulars of the discovery, and the directors of the new company are already Hooded with applications from all parts of the States, from firms desirous of testing the merits of the novel preparation. Such enthusiasm is rarely accorded a new discovery. The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Company states that Voltite will save them 50,000 dollars (£10,000) per annum, and, further, that it is intended to “scrap” the present electro-plating plant used by the hotel, when the American Company is ready to supply them with Voltite. This statement will he the more readily credited when it is understood that only silver-plated knives are used in these palatial hotels, and their life in the ordinary course of events is not more than 12 months; the knives themselves being very expensive, it will bo soon that if by the aid of Voltite their life can be indefinitely prolonged, the saving to such an hotel as the Waldorf-Astor-ia would he enormous. Many other firms have expressed similar intentions.

What has tickled the American is that a “savage” from a little island “away beyond the earth” has come to America, the land of invention, and has produced a perfected process hitherto believed impossible. One metallurgist in New York lost 1000 dollars ('£2so) through being ton sceptical. He bet this amount that Dir Firth could not electro-plate gold direct on to steel—he knows now, and is 1000 dollars poorer. But, apart from the sale of the American rights, it must be remembered that the New Zealand company has for disposal the rights of the remainder of the world. Mr Stilwell, the president of the United States and Mexican Trust Company, has already acquired the option to float, on similar lines to that paid by the American company, other companies in England. France, Germany, Austria, and South America. Should these options be exercised, which

doubtless they will be, the shares of Hie Voltite Company of Now Zealand should prove a gold mine to those fortunate investors who originally financed the parent company. Meanwhile, according to advices received, the American directors have not been idle, for it was expected that the New York factory would bo in full swing at the end of tins month, when the plant will he capable of turning out 30,000 tins per diem. This output will bo increased in the near future, for it is estimated that 25,000,000 tins will be sold iu the United tevatss the first year, and, needless to say-, if this expectation is only approximately realised, the prospects of the company arc of the brightest. In conclusion, it may he confidently stated that this is the biggest New Zealand deal ever brought off in America, and that the invention has caused keen interest in scientific circles the world over.