The following phenomenon is probably not universally known. If you use zinc anodes in a cadmium barrel plating bath instead of the cadmium anodes, a bright bluish zinc-cadmium plate is obtained which has very much the appearance of chromium plating and which gives a better protection against corrosion than a coating of either zinc or cadmium alone. Articles plated in this way and kept stored for several months retain their brightness, whereas zinc or cadmium plating grows dull or unsightly much earlier. As the bath becomes gradually depleted of cadmium more cadmium salts must be added periodically to the bath.