John Wright (1808–1844) was a surgeon from Birmingham, England who invented a process of electroplating involving potassium cyanide.
He was born on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent and was apprenticed to a Dr Spearman in Rotherham, Yorkshire.
[1] He moved to the Bordesley district of Birmingham in 1833, in the centre of the metal working industry, where he experimented with electricity in his spare time.
After reading an article by Carl Wilhelm Scheele on the behaviour of the cyanides of gold and silver in a solution of potassium cyanide he devised an experiment to test such a solution as an electrolyte.
The process became widely used in preference to the dangerous techniques previously used and Wright benefited from a steady royalty income.