This section is from the book "The English And American Mechanic", by B. Frank Van Cleve. Also available from Amazon: The English And American Mechanic.
Put to gether in a glass vessel one ounce nitrate of silver, two ounces cya-nuret potassa, four ounces prepared Spanish whiting, and ten ounces pure rain water. Cleanse the article to be plated as per preceding directions, and apply with a soft brush. Finish with the chamois skin or burnisher.
Dissolve silver in nitric acid by the aid of heat; put some pieces of copper into the solution to precipitate the silver; wash the acid out in the usual way; then with fifteen grains of it mix two drachms of tartar, two drachms of table salt, and half a drachm of pulverized alum. Brighten the article to be plated with lye and prepared chalk, and rub on the mixture. When it has assumed a white appearance, expose to heat as in the case of plating with gold amalgam, then polish up with the burnisher or soft leather.
 
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