can be
reproduced with great facility and economy, and the exact touches of an
artist in clay or wax can be reproduced in metal without the translation of
casting. Nothing is too small or too large,--the colossal statue of an Amazon
on horseback spearing a lioness, by Kiss, the Berlin sculptor, exhibiting in
the Hyde Park Exhibition of 1851, was copied in zinc and bronzed by this
process; and, by the same means, flowers, feathers, and even spiders' webs
have been covered with a metal film.

At present, a handsome electro-plated teapot, exactly resembling silver, may
be purchased at what a Britannia metal one cost fifteen years ago.

Messrs. Elkington and Mason, the purchasers of the secret from the original
discoverer and authors of valuable improvements, are at the head of one of
the finest and most interesting silver and electroplating establishments in
the kingdom.

In commencing this new manufacture, the commercial difficulties they had to
overcome, in addition to those of a practical and mechanical nature, were
very formidable.

The Messrs. Elkingtons originally intended to confine themselves to plating
for the trade. But the prejudice against the new process was so great, that
the manufacturers of the needful articles could not be induced to try it.
Messrs. Elkington were, therefore, very unwillingly, compelled to invest a
capital in becoming manufacturers of plated forks, spoons, cruets,
candlesticks, tea services, and all the et ceteras of imitation silver. The
additional venture did not serve their purpose. The retail dealers, equally
prejudiced, refused or neglected to push off the new plate. More anxiety and
more expenditure of capital followed, for the patentees were obliged to
establish retail establishments in several cities in this country, America,
and our Colonies. The struggle ended in complete success; the use of electro
plate has become universal, and the manufacture is not confined to Messrs.
Elkington, but is carried on, under licence from the Patentees, by a vast
number of firms. The result, however, has been, as already stated, to
transfer a good deal of the plated trade of Sheffield to Birmingham, for the
former town has slowly and unwillingly adopted the new method, which has
deprived its manufacturers of their ancient pre-eminence. Electro-plating
has not, as was imagined on its first discovery, lessened the demand for
manual labour in the plate trade; on the contrary, it has largel