London, who deposited a coating of copper on lead castings, so as to produce antique heads in relief, about 3 or 4 inches in size. He contented himself with forming a few such ornaments for his mantelpiece; and through he made no secret of his purpose, he published nothing upon the subject. A letter of the 22d of May, 1839, written by Mr. J. C. Jordan, which appeared in the Mechanics' Mag. for June 8, following, contains the first printed notice of the manipulation requisite for obtaining electro-metallic casts; and to this gentleman, therefore, the world is indebted for the first discovery of this new and important application of science to the uses of life. It appears that Mr. Jordan had made his experiments in the preceding summer, and having become otherwise busily occupied, did not think of publishing till he observed a vague statement in the Journals, that Professor Jacobi, of St. Petersburg, had done something of the same kind. Mr. Jordan's apparatus consisted

When the Doctor published a supplement to his Dictionary in 1846, he referred to these medallion castings, under the head of "Electro-metallurgy," as having to his knowledge been cast in "lead" (sic) and coated with copper, about ten years previously: that is, about five or six years prior to the discovery of the electrotype process, by Jacobi of St. Petersburg, Jordan of London, and Spencer of Liverpool. This process was afterwards perfected by Dr. Wright, and Messrs Elkington, of Birmingham, to whose joint labours we owe the practical development of the beautiful art of Electro-Metallurgy, to which I had "approached within measurable distance," but of which I had nevertheless failed to recognise the full importance, excepting as a means of producing artificial bronzes by coating the cheaper white metal castings, as is now largely practised in France, in imitation of bronze for clocks, etc. In order that there shall be no misapprehension as to what Dr. Ure has said on the subject, I give on the opposite page a photographic reproduction of the upper part of page 629 (Electro-Metallurgy), in the Fourth Edition of his Dictionary, published by Longman, Brown, Green and Longman, the title-page of which bears date 1853. This extract clearly shows that I practised the art of depositing copper from an acid solution of that metal on the surface of ornamental castings, several years before we had any known or published account of that process.

It is quite true, as the Doctor states, that I kept some of these medallions as ornaments on my mantel- piece, where three of them may be found at this very day; but Dr. Ure appears to have forgotten, or possibly was unaware of the existence of, the beautiful specimens of natural objects cast in white metal and coated with copper, which I exhibited in Trafalgar Square, and afterwards in Leicester Square, and which had the effect of bringing me in contact with several large business firms, and in one case resulted in the development of an entirely new and important branch of the Utrecht velvet manufacture, to which I shall have occasion hereafter to refer.

There is yet another description of casting known as the "lost wax" process, which was at that time practised in France; and I was anxious, if possible, to acquire this art, as it seemed to offer greater facility for obtaining white metal casts of busts and statuettes from wax models that were cast in plaster-of-Paris moulds. To the metal casting so obtained, the appearance of real bronze could be imparted by depositing a green copper coating thereon. By doing this the "lost wax" process need not have been confined, as it then was, to the production of original works of art modelled in wax; and the effect would have been to immensely facilitate the multiplication of copies of the highest examples of classic art, by simply obtaining thin wax casts of them, in lieu of the plaster casts sold so cheaply in the streets by itinerant Italians. The loss of the wax model so produced forms only a very small part of the cost of the process.

All persons conversant with the ordinary mode of casting a bust or statuette must be aware that the mould is formed of a great number of small pieces, more or less perfectly fitted together, and that the metal in casting will run into all the minute joints or cracks which lie between the numerous parts of which the mould is composed, forming little ribs or "fins," which cross the face and other portions whereon the talent of the artist who prepares the model is chiefly expended. The removal of these ribs or fins, with chisels or files, must be done by a workman after the cast is made, and this greatly interferes with the delicate touches of the artist, and not unfrequently mars his work. In the "lost wax" process, the artist may put on his finest touches, may "undercut" as much as he pleases, or form intricate hollows to any extent, which he could not do if the mould had to be made in pieces; when the model is complete in wax, a mould can be made over it in one piece, after which the wax original is melted out or "lost." Molten