and seemed to take so much interest in me that I was induced to give him a short sketch of my isolated country life. I described to him my love of experiments in casting, and how I made use of the continued statical pressure of a high column of metal, retained in a fluid state for a considerable time, in a red- hot mould. He was much interested in my founding operations, and generously declined to take any fee for the analysis he had made for me, saying, if I wanted any further analyses he would be happy to do them for me. Needless to say how pleased and grateful I felt for his disinterested kindness, and the encouragement which his appreciation gave me.

With the exception of three or four samples still remaining in my possession, all these beautiful castings have been sold or given away many years ago.

Among those I still have is one of the cartoons of Raphael, representing the "Woman taken in Adultery," a plaster-of-Paris copy of which I bought for a few pence from an itinerant Italian. It was fairly sharp and perfect in detail, and I planed some strips of type-metal into an ornamental moulding, so as to form a frame around it. I then made a mould from it as framed, and took a cast in a white metal alloy, which I afterwards coated with a thin film of copper, in the manner already described.

It is now in much the same condition as it was when cast, with the exception of the loss of the more prominent features, caused by the continued rubbing and dusting of the housemaid -- or rather, I may say, of a succession of housemaids, who during the last sixty-four years have gradually wiped away, not only the copper film from the projecting parts, but a noticeable quantity also of the soft metal of which it is made: as will be at once seen on examining the photographic reproduction, Fig. 1, Plate I. , which is a full-sized representation of it.

I also give, in Fig. 2, Plate II., a copy of an oval medallion, the numerous figures on which were originally very sharp and perfect, but it has suffered somewhat by rubbing and dusting from time to time during these many years.

These medallions were, as Dr. Ure says in his article on Electro-Metallurgy, simply used as "mantel- piece ornaments," and I doubt not that this oval medallion was one of those I had shown to him in 1836, and had made in 1832 when I was about nineteen years of age. This perfect casting was, like the cartoon, coated with a thin film of copper, giving it the appearance of being cast in that metal.

Fig. 3. EXTRACT FROM Dr. URE'S DICTIONARY, "ELECTRO-METALLURGY"

ELECTRO-METALLURGY. 629

rounded by a cylinder of zinc, and then introduced into another vessel (a wooden tub for instance) containing dilute sulphuric acid. The earthen vessel is intended to contain the solution of gold or silver, and is furnished with a web of copper wire, which is made to communicate with the zinc by means of one or more conducting wires. The objects to be gilt or silvered are placed upon the net-work. The earthen vessel containing a zinc cylinder, and some hydrochloric acid, is introduced into another vessel, containing the solution of gold or silver, placed in the centre of a wire web partition, which communicates with the zinc cylinder by means of a conducting wire. In the first case, the articles which are to receive the thickest coating are placed nearest the outer sides of the apparatus; in the second, nearest to the earthen vessel: in both cases it is advisable to shift their position occasionally. By combining these different arrangements, the deposit obtained is more abundant, and more equally distributed upon the surface to be gilded or to be silvered. For this purpose an opening is made in the centre of the web in which the zinc cylinder is inserted, with connecting wires to the web. When the articles to be operated upon can be easily suspended from a given point, the web of the apparatus may be made with wider meshes, and the articles suspended vertically between them. Dr. Philipp prefers a single galvanic arrangement to a battery, as it affords more solid deposition.

ELECTRO-METALLURGY. By this elegant art perfectly exact copies of any object can be made in copper, silver, gold, and some other metals, through the agency of voltaic electricity. The earliest application of this kind seems to have been practised about 16 years ago, by Mr. Bessemer, of Camden Town,