Brass plated strings??

[ROBOTUNER@AOL.COM]

          My grandfather in Philly had a Schoemacher upright(20's vintage) 
that is now at my sisters house.It has electro-plated gold strings.One broke 
in the high treble when I was an apprentice(this was in 1980 when we still 
used that word)..I showed it to my teacher and he said yes indeed it was 
electroplated gold and if I hadn't been overpulling the upper treble too much 
it probably wouldn't have broken.The bass strings are copper wound.