After showing
me what he was doing already in the way of electro-plating, Mr.
Elkington sent me back to London in order to read some patents of his
own, asking me to return if, after perusal, I still thought I could
teach him anything. To my great disappointment, I found that the
chemical solutions I had been using were actually mentioned in one of
his patents, although in a manner that would hardly have sufficed to
enable a third person to obtain practical results.
On my return to Birmingham I frankly stated what I had found, and
with this frankness I evidently gained the favour of another townsman of
yours, Mr. Josiah Mason, who had just joined Mr. Elkington in business,
and whose name, as Sir Josiah Mason, will ever be remembered for his
munificent endowment of education. It was agreed that I should not be
judged by the novelty of my invention, but by the results which I
promised, namely, of being able to deposit with a smooth surface 30 dwt.
of silver upon a dish-cover, the crystalline structure of the deposit
having theretofore been a source of difficulty. In this I succeeded,
and I was able to return to my native country and my mechanical
engineering a comparative Croesus.
'But it was not for long, as in the following year (1844) I again
landed in the Thames with another invention, worked out also with my
brother, namely, the chronometric governor, which, though less
successful, commercially speaking, than the first, obtained for me the
advantage of bringing me into contact with the engineering world, and
of fixing me permanently in this country.
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