Brugnatelli

Italian chemist, Luigi Brugnatelli invented electroplating in 1805. Brugnatelli performed electrodeposition of gold using the Voltaic Pile, discovered by his college Allessandro Volta in 1800. Luigi Brugnatelli's work was rebuffed by the dictator Napoleon Bonaparte, which caused Brugnatelli to suppress any further publication of his work.
However, Luigi Brugnatelli did write about electroplating in the Belgian Journal of Physics and Chemistry, "I have lately gilt in a complete manner two large silver medals, by bringing them into communication by means of a steel wire, with a negative pole of a voltaic pile, and keeping them one after the other immersed in ammoniuret of gold newly made and well saturated".

Brugnatelli

Italian chemist, Luigi Brugnatelli invented electroplating in 1805. Brugnatelli performed electrodeposition of gold using the Voltaic Pile, discovered by his college Allessandro Volta in 1800. Luigi Brugnatelli's work was rebuffed by the dictator Napoleon Bonaparte, which caused Brugnatelli to suppress any further publication of his work.
However, Luigi Brugnatelli did write about electroplating in the Belgian Journal of Physics and Chemistry, "I have lately gilt in a complete manner two large silver medals, by bringing them into communication by means of a steel wire, with a negative pole of a voltaic pile, and keeping them one after the other immersed in ammoniuret of gold newly made and well saturated".

Wright

Forty years later, John Wright of Birmingham, England discovered that potassium cyanide was a suitable electrolyte for gold and silver electroplating. According to the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, "It was a Birmingham doctor, John Wright, who first showed that items could be electroplated by immersing them in a tank of silver held in solution, through which an electric current was passed."

Elkingtons

Others inventors were also carrying on similar work. Several patents for electroplating processes were issued in 1840. However, cousins Henry and George Richard Elkington patented the electroplating process first. It should be noted that the Elkington's bought the patent rights to John Wright's process. The Elkington's held a monopoly on electroplating for many years due to their patent for an inexpensive method of electroplating.
In 1857, the next new wonder in economical jewelry arrived called electroplating - when the process was first applied to costume jewelry.

Plating is a surface covering in which a metal is deposited on a conductive surface. Plating has been done for hundreds of years, but it is also critical for modern technology. Plating is used to decorate objects, for corrosion inhibition, to improve solderability, to harden, to improve wearability, to reduce friction, to improve paint adhesion, to alter conductivity, for radiation shielding, and for other purposes. Jewelery typically uses plating to give a silver or gold finish. Thin-film deposition has plated objects as small as an atom, therefore plating finds uses in nanotechnology.
There are several plating methods, and many variations. In one method, a solid surface is covered with a metal sheet, and then heat and pressure are applied to fuse them (a version of this is Sheffield plate). Other plating techniques include vapor deposition under vacuum and sputter deposition. Recently, plating often refers to using liquids. Metallizing refers to coating metal on non-metallic objects.