It is obvious why the sellers liked to use that name.īut electrum is a bit puzzling. Someone remarked to me that I got it real cheap, since it was all silver. It was marked electroplated German silver, which the auctioneer and I understood perfectly. I once bought a nice silver plated tray at an auction for about $10. The name German silver has been used almost 200 years with a propensity to mislead ignorant people into thinking they were getting some precious metal.
The mis-use of electrum goes back a long time, but still about 2000 years after the original meaning was established. Electrum of inferior quality approaches the color of pale brass." Its merit over brass is that it will not soil the fingers by forming verdigris from the action of the persperation of the hand neither does it emit the odor peculiar to brass, which is very dissagreeable to some few senstaive people. "Electrum, as it is called, should be an alloy compaosed of pure nickel and copper in colour it should nearly equal the whiteness of standard silver, with the advantage of bing stiffer and of less specific gravity. > zinc alloys, generally with 20% zinc and varying ratios of copper toĮlectrum as defined by Stanley 1878, Chapter 1, page 5. > for both Nickel Silver and German Silver. > definition of electrum although I have several different compositions > Could you please keep me informed of your findings, John, as this has > A G Thornton 1895 catalogue:- 'German Silver', but > A G Thornton 1916 catalogue:- 'Electrum', but 'German Silver' for > James Dinsdale Ltd, 1960 catalogue:- 'Electrum' (Lee Guiness items) > Norton & Gregory, 1922 advert in the MOdel Engineer:- 'Electrum' > A G Thornton, 1920 advert in Model Engineer:- 'rolled white nickel > JJ Threadwell, 1930s and 1948 catalogues:- 'hard drawn Nickel Silver' > WH Harling, 1930 catalogue:- 'Electrum' > C F Casella & Co, c1930 catalogue:- 'Electrum' > A West & Partners, 1953 catalogue:- 'Electrum' > A West & Partners, 1930 catalogue:- 'Electrum' throughout including > J Halden, late 1920s catalogue:- still the same as 1902. > J Halden, 1910 catalogue:- exactly the same as 1902. > Amsler planimeters and 'Electrum' in their description of Amsler However they used 'German Silver' in their description of the > instruments which look suspiciously like Riefler round pattern > J Halden, 1902 catalogue:- 'Electrum' (even for their 'New Model' > B J Hall & Co, 1930 catalogue:- 'Electrum' > William Elliott & Sons price list in the back of the 1851 edition of this question was asked on the Yahoo Drawing Instrument site. it is sort of a mystery metal that each company could concoct and it sounded good. While I do not doubt Larry is correct the term "Electrum" was used by many of the makers of drawing instrument to describe what they were made of. I will add some more photos and links that I found on the internet later. I did find another thread by rivett about another set here. I have attached some more photos of mine incase someone can tell us any more about it. I suppose not so different from that 486 computer I bought before 1995 and recently sent to the recycling centre.
I wonder how the folks who made these things would feel about that ?Įven more so some one who paid a considerable number of hours work to buy the sets when new. īy what I have seen on line many of these old sets can be had for a little more than the price of a fast food lunch. Given the machine tools they would have had in the early 1800 s when the examples in Rivett’s book would have been made I think they are amazing pieces of work. I suppose since it is unmarked determining who made it could come down to measuring screw sizes, pitches and thread angles or knurling patterns etc.Īt any rate I still was impressed with the construction of the various pieces and I would be interested to know if any one knows where there might be anything on line about the shops where these instruments were made and the equipment they might have used. I didn’t find an exact example of my set but there are many similar ones out there. This may be one of those times when I should have done a little more homework beforehand.Īs is often the case just because something looks like something old and rare or unusual doesn’t mean it is as I found out when I did a little searching on ebay and other sites on the internet. I’ve had several too little too late moments lately when it came to asking about something or going to see something so I thought I would just go ahead and post. I have often thought about posting about this set but thought I should do a little more investigation before I posted it.
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