When was Chromium plating first used on bicycle handlebars?
Photos of bicycles used during and just after WWI did not have chrome handlebars and neither did any of the vehicles or aeroplanes at this time. It would basically have cost too much to use for small quantities. Commercial chrome plating was developed by Fink & Eldridge at Columbia University in 1924, and was based on a 1920 paper by Dr. George J. Sargent. Because of this discovery, the most conventional chromium plating process is still called “the Sargent bath”.
