Lord Rosse also performed some preliminary work in association with the practices of the electrodeposition of copper sulfate upon silver films circa 1865 whilst in search of the design for a truly flat mirror to use in a telescope. However, he found it impossible to properly electroplate copper upon these silver films, as the copper would contract and detach from the underlying glass substrate. His note has been cited as one of the earliest confirmations in literature that thin films on glass substrates experience residual stresses. He revived discussion in on his work "Nature"'s August 1908 edition after witnessing similar techniques used to present newly-devised searchlights before the Royal Society.