(5) Iron for Nickel-plating. According to Dr. Gore (Electra-metallurgy, p. 319) the best bath for cleaning iron is made as follows: "One gallon of water and one pound of sulphuric acid are mixed with one or two ounces of zinc (which of course dissolves); to this is added half a pound of nitric acid." The writer has been accustomed to clean iron by mechanical means, to deprive it of grease by caustic alkali, and to finish it off by, means of a hard scratch brush. This process has always worked satisfactorily. (6) Articles soldered with soft solder containing lead and tin do not readily lend themselves to electrolytic processes, the solder generally becoming black and refusing to be coated with the electro-deposit. Moreover, if soldered articles are boiled for any length of time in caustic alkali during the preliminary cleansing, enough tin will dissolve to form a solution of stannate of potash or soda--strong enough to deposit tin on brass or copper. A method of coppering soldered articles will be described later on. Sec. 130. Scratch-brushing. This process is generally indispensable, and to its omission is to be traced most laboratory failures in electroplating. Scratch-brushes may be bought at those interesting shops where "watchmakers' supplies" are sold. It will be well, therefore, to purchase a selection of scratch brushes, for they are made to suit particular kinds of work. They are all made of brass wire, and vary both in hardness and in the fineness of the wire. The simplest kind of scratch brush consists merely of a bundle of wires bound up tightly by another wire, and somewhat "frizzed" out at the ends (Fig. 90). A more useful kind is made just like a rotating brush, and has to be mounted on a lathe (Fig. 91). Fig. 90. Fig. 91. The scratch brush is generally, if not always, applied wet; the lubricant generally recommended is stale beer, but this may be replaced by water containing a small quantity of glue, or any other form of gelatine in solution--a mere trace (say .1 per cent) is quite sufficient. Very fair results may be got by using either pure or soapy water. The rotating brushes require to be mounted on a lathe, and may be run at the same speed as would be employed for turning wooden objects of the same dimensions. Since the brush has to be kept wet by allowing water or its equivalent to drip upon it, it is usual to make a tin trough over which the brush can revolve, and to further protect this by a tin hood to keep the liquid from being thrown all over the room. In many works the brush is arranged to lie partly in the liquid, and this does very well if the hood is effective.