on 20 may 1790, keir communicated to the royal society "experiments and observations on the dissolution of metals in acids, and their precipitations, with an account of a new compound acid menstruum, useful in some technical operations of parting metals". this paper contains suggestions which may have contributed to the discovery of the electro-plate process. it was translated into german later the same year by augustin gottfried ludwig lentin as " versuche und beobachtungen über die auflösung der metalle in säuren ... "