What types of platers were there in the metal industry c1820-40s?

[Annbee]

Hello, I'm hoping there's a metal trades sleuth who can help. My family in Birmingham were a mix of brass founders and merchants in Birmingham from the 1700's to the late 1800s. While the core of the family weren't platers themselves, they would have outsourced and were business friends of the Elkingtons and even introduced William Siemens to the Elkingtons (the family had German business partners.) This is the background.

The image attached is of an 1845 marriage of John Beach, a relative I have found hard to place over many years. He and his son were closely associated with brassfounder/merchant core of the family. According to the document, John Beach's father was either a "C Plater" or a "L Plater"...?

Would anyone know what sort of plater this might be?

I will add that I first thought it might be a badly drawn 'E' Plater, but John Beach's father would have been at least 60 years old if he were still alive and the bridegroom John Beach was into his 40s. Since the Elkingtons had only recently patented their electro plating process, I discounted 'electro plating'. However, if this Plater was related to my great something grandfather, who was said to be inventive and mathematical, it might be possible the Plater was chemistry etc inclined and an early electro plater.

All thoughts welcome!

[mckha489]

I am not a metallurgist of any sort. But my first thought was C = Copper.
But then I looked up Copper Plating, and that too is an electro-chemical process

[Annbee]

mckha489, thanks for having a think about it. I agree the letter before 'plater' seems like a C and any letter I would think infers an electro plating of some sort. But commercially electro plating wasn't in full swing in Birmingham for John Beach the Plater's time frame.

If it IS some sort of electro plating, then that is at least a clue for me as to the credentials of the relative. My inventive great something grandfather was the father of Sarah Guppy who was also very inventive in Bristol - so the unknown John Beach the Plater might be someone who experimented without being the success that Elkingtons the silver platers were.

[mckha489]

You have obviously looked into the whole process thoroughly.
but wiki here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroplating#:~:text=Electroplating%20was%20invented%20by%20Italian,to%20facilitate%20the%20first%20electrodeposition.

Says 1805



Added.. 20th Feb 1808 there are two lectures about it advertised in Ipswich Journal

[Annbee]

Yes, and the poor Italian man Luigi Brugnatelli who got gazumped because Napoleon stopped him because Napoleon didn't want the hoi polloi buying the affordable silver items that Brugnatelli could produce!

Then everyone forgot about the process for a couple of decades until several people came to the idea at about the same time. I wonder if any of them were riding on the coat tails of Brugnatelli, yet not crediting him. (Wikipedia says his successors came to the electro plating process independently - but of course the chemists would say that!)

Hats off to Luigi who had other strings to his bow and is not forgotten: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Valentino_Brugnatelli   

Added: I just saw your addition that Brugnatelli was published in Ipswich. That'd be right. And it certainly couldn't have been a secret because Brugnatelli was a scientist who believed in sharing his knowledge with peers through publishing... But I digress