Newark Branch of AESF

NEWARK BRANCH of the American Electroplaters' Society was formed by New Jersey platers who were members of the New York Branch and was chartered April 25, 1913. The first meetings were held at the home of Horace Smith on Cortland Street in Belleville. After several meetings in Mr. Smith's home a room was secured at the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) quarters near the New Jersey Central Station on Broad Street where regular meetings were held twice a month. There were quite a few veterans of the Civil War alive at that time and battle flags and other mementos of the war decorated the meeting room. The next meeting room was at the Petty Laboratories at 47 Bank Street, where the Branch had a small laboratory of its own for about five years. Active in the work of the laboratory were Charles Proctor, Oliver Sizelove, Charles Piske, Philip Sievering, H. Bergfels and Van Winkle Todd. Over the next twenty years meetings were held at DeJiannes on Central Avenue near Halsey Street, Franklin Hall on Franklin Street, Kreuger Club on Belmont Avenue, North End Club at Broad Street and Third Avenue, Douglas Hotel, The Elks Club on Broad Street and then some twenty years at the Robert Treat Hotel.

The Newark Branch, became the ninth branch and now the eighth in continuous activity. The Society name was changed from the National Electroplaters' Association to the American Electroplaters' Society in 1913, when George B. Hogaboom was elected the first president of the Society. The AES published a booklet called the Quarterly Review every three months. It carried no advertising and contained articles on plating written by members of various branches.

At the time of the formation of Newark Branch, the platers were a very secretive crowd. They kept their formulas and secrets pretty much to themselves and shared them with very few people. The Quarterly Review was supposed to be seen only by members of the AES and one of the Branches expelled a member for loaning his copy to a non-member. If a member of the Society applied for a job, he had to be very careful and explain that the Society was purely educational and not a union. Several times during labor troubles, Newark Branch was approached to take sides, but stuck steadfastly to the fact that it was an educational group.

During the early years of the organization, the meetings were often controversial with lots of arguments on the floor. A plater was not eligible for active membership unless he had at least five years experience in the plating room, three of which he had to have been a foreman. A committee of three usually questioned him as to his fitness and knowledge of plating. Another source of contention was to the extent to which the supply houses would go to help the employer on the actual plating processes. This may seem narrow-minded today, but some employers were not above having a lower paid man and, depending on the supply house, to keep his solutions in shape.

From the beginning Newark Branch and New York Branch cooperated and visited each other quite often. Some of the Jersey platers retained their membership with New York Branch but attended the Newark meetings in a spirit of cooperation.

As to the educational side of the meetings, this period was mostly devoted to questions and answers. Articles on various plating processes were sometimes read but usually problems of the members were submitted and attempts were made to help out members through discussion. In those days discussions on nickel pitting occupied a large part of the educational period.

Before the introduction of peroxide, sodium perborate and the modern anti-pit agents, nickel pitting was a very great problem. There was a lot more brass plating during the early days and discussions on brass solutions took up quite a little time. The various oxidize and color finishes were very popular at that time and formulae to produce metallic bronzes were exchanged. This was probably an extension of the Victorian era with its ornate and elaborate pianos, statues, gas and electric lamps.

In its early period, there were several members to which Newark Branch owes much. Horace Smith was an energetic person who had the social interests at heart; Oliver J. Sizelove, to whom many brought their plating problems, and George B. Hogaboom, who worked hard for the whole AES as well as Newark Branch. Mr. Charles Proctor, a member of the New York Branch, was very much interested in Newark Branch and contributed much to us. It should be added that in the early years, the Reverend Dr. Thompson served as Chaplain and Spritual Advisor to the Branch.

It may seem to some that the early AES was very narrow-minded in some of its views, but it should be remembered that for almost one hundred years the plating business was practically a secret art.

Since the establishment of the Branch, Newark Delegates have been active in Supreme Society* deliberations and Newark Branch members have presented scores of papers before other Branches' and at AES conventions and have written over a hundred papers for the Monthly Review and Plating & Surface Finishing. The educational aims of the Branch have been reflected in many ways, for example, the plating course given first at the Newark Technical School (now Newark College of Engineering) by James Moorehouse and George Hogaboom and later at the Central High School and Essex County Vocational School by Oliver Sizelove, Sam Taylor and George Reuter. The course at the Essex County Vocational School included information on formulae for the various plating solutions, experiments with same, and chemical analysis of the solutions. At the completion of the course, every participant was in a position to analyze his own electrolytes. Another example of this activity was the Newark Branch Handbook, first published in 1919, with Oliver Sizelove as Editor, and from time to time, during the period 1925 to 1947. This booklet became a standard handbook throughout the Society.

This early History of Newark Branch was prepared by Charter Members Edward Faint, George Reuter and Sam Taylor, along with Treasurer, George Wagner in 1959, edited by Don Foulke.

*Now called the Council of Delegates.


The following, incomplete - see Item 8, reflects the activity of
Newark Branch members in the National Society:
1. Presidents of the American Electroplaters' Society:
George Hogaboom ('13) George Wagner ('43)
Horace Smith ('28 - ‘29) Dr. W. A. Wesley (‘60)
Philip Sievering ('31)
With Herb Tilton elected Second Vice President in Boston (‘81), the tradition continues.

2. Honarary Members of the American Electroplaters' Society:
E. Kunz ('14) George Wagner ('55)
E. Weston ('30) Tom Trumbour ('56)
George Hogaboom ('34) Myron Diggin ('61)
Philip Sievering ('38) Andrew Wesley (‘64)
Oliver Sizelove ( ‘40) Rodney Leeds (‘75)
Horace Smith ('46) Don Foulke ('79)

3. A.E.S. Research Committee Chairmen:
George Hogaboom ('36) Robert Duva ('71, ‘80)
W. Andrew Wesley ('50) George DiBari ('75,'76)
R. Ehrhardt ('57) Larry Durney ('78)
Don Foulke ('60) John Deuber (‘82)
Burt Knapp ( '63)

4. Editors of PLATING (Technical):
Don Foulke (temporary)
Rodney Leeds
Fred Lowenheim

5. Executive Secretaries (Directors) of the A.E.S.:
Don Foulke
Peter Kovatis
Rodney Leeds

6. A.E.S. Scientific Achievement Awards:
W . A. Wesley ( ‘62)
Henry Linford (‘66)
Burt Knapp ('77)
Fred Lowenheim (‘78)
Rolf Weil (‘81)

7. Board of Directors (established in 1963 during the Atlantic City Convention):
Don Foulke (‘63)
Henry Linford (‘66)
Flavio LaManna (‘69)
Herb Tilton ('75, ‘78)
Herm Hammer (‘ 82)

8. Awards and A.E.S. Committees:
It would be a formidable research project to determine all the Newark Branch members who have been paper (including Gold Medal), Proctor, Lane, Merit and other A.E.S. Award winners, or to list those who have served on various A.E.S. Committees, (BAB, TEB, etc.) and on the Research Committee (Board) or on Research Project Committees. They have been myriad.


Recent highlights in chronological fashion include:
1951 Inauguration of SPARKS in 1951. Editors: Foulke, LaManna, Rack and Mary Foulke.

1955 Re-establishment of the Electroplating School and writing of the Manual. Editors: Carr, LaManna, Foulke.

1963 Branch's 50th Anniversary, Ladies' Night, April 12, when George Reuter, Roy Stout and Sam Taylor were honored for being 50 year members.

1965 Formation of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council, spearheaded by Newark, New York and Washington members.

1966 First "Plating in the Electronics Industry Symposium," at Newark December 8 & 9, hosted by Mid-Atlantic Regional with local arrangements handled by Newark Branch, Robert Ehrhardt, General Chairman.

1967-68 George Wagner Memorial Scholarship Fund established. The first award was made May, 1968 by Henry Linford, Chairman of the Scholarship Committee. Named for George Wagner, Secretary-Treasurer for 20 years and Treasurer subsequently, who stabilized the Branch finances. Winners starting in 1968 have been Barbara Reinhardt, James Seuffert, Thomas Seuffert, Frank Vretenar, Patrick Ciccone, Sarah Doughty, Linda Aguiar and in 1975, Robert Knapp and Ellen Alina and then Brian Cassidy. In 1977 the winners were James LaManna, Peter Kolb, Celestine Nisbett. Then from 1978 to 1981, Linda LaManna, Nan Seuffert, Pamela Bianca and Paul Kovatis. In 1982 there were no applications.

1972 Establishment by the New York and Newark Branches of the John Trumbour Humanitarian Award. Newark recipients have been: John Kosmos ('73), R. Horrocks ('75),D.Foulke ('77), H. Tilton ('79) and Eugene Wagner (181)

1974 At the November meeting, the Branch by-laws were changed to make the Past President the Educational Chairman.

1975 The Branch was the first recipient of the newly established Sustaining Membership Award.

The A.E.S. itself, has had close liaison with related technical societies here and abroad, and so has the Newark Branch worked cooperatively with the Metropolitan Section of the Electrochemical Society, the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society for Metals, MFSA and NAMF. Many Newark Branch members are associated with these organizations, have been active on ASTM Committees and have been members of international societies such as the Institute of Metal Finishing (British), Schweizerische Galvanotechnische Gesellshaft (Swiss) and Deutsche Galvanische Geselschaft (German). The Branch has two European Sustaining members (Doduco and Werner Fluehmann AG) and members living in Japan (3), Switzerland (3), Britain (1), France (1), Germany (1), Hong Kong (1), Taiwan (1) and some of these are long time members of the Branch; thanks for your support! Also evidence of loyalty to the Branch is the number of members who have moved west, south, north, east of Newark, but who still maintain their membership because the Branch means something to them. Other highlights that should be mentioned include:

Four conventions - Newark, 1926 with Horace Smith as Chairman, Asbury Park in 1939 (also the Second International Conference), again with Horace Smith as Chairman, Atlantic City in 1948 (also the Second Industrial Finishing Exposition), with Horace Smith, Chairman and George Wagner capably subbing when Horace's health failed, and in Atlantic City in 1963 with Don Foulke as Chairman. Committee Chairmen of the 1963 Convention totaled 16 members (PLATING, 50, 528) and the whole Branch worked hard with 15 members serving as Session Chairmen or authors ( ibid, 521 , et seq) . The Branch now looks forward to c.o-hosting with New York and Long Island Branches, the 1984 - 75th Convention in New York City with Herm Hammer, Chairman and with Bob Sizelove as third generation Newark Branch President.

Four hundred and fifty strong, the Newark Branch of the American Electroplaters' Society, Inc., is preparing to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the American Electroplaters' Society as a co-host in New York when Newark Branch will be 71 years young.

D. Gardner Foulke - January 1983