Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-08-28
THE0UEFREST OF METALS.
Interesting Facts About platinum
and It's PecmIiariiies.

and It's Pecultarftfes.
After an excellent dav of weakfsh
ing on B4rnegat Bay and an unexcep-
tionable supper Of the good oldfash.
Toned, country.tavern kind, social
party of anglers SAT- about on Uncle
10 Parker's broad porch at Forked
River smoking and enjoying the cool,
fragrant breath of the cedar swamp.
when somehow the chat drifted to the
subject of assaying and refining the
precious metals. That was Just where
one of the party, Mr. ID, w. Baker
of Newark, was at home, and IN the
course of an impromptu lecture he
told the party more about the topic
under discussion, and especially the
platinum branch of it, than they ever
knew before.
"Our firm, he said, practically
does ali the platinum business of this
country. and the de uand for the
material is so great that we never can
get more than we want of H. The
principHl portion, or, in fact, nearly
all OF it, comes from the famous
mines of the DemidoH family, who
have the monopoly OF the production
in Russia. 1t is all refined and mace
into sheets of various thickness, and
INTO wire of certain commercial sizes
before it comes TO us; but we have
frequently to cut, roll, and redraw it
to new forms and sizes TO meet the
demands upon us. At one time it was
coined in Russia, but it is no longer
applied to that use. We have obtain
ed some very good crude platinum ore
/ from South America, and have re-
fined it successfully, bat the supply
/ from that source is, as yet, very
small ! am not aware that IT has
been found anywhere else than in
+ Colombia, on that continent, but the
/ explorations thus far made into the
mineral resources of South America
/ have been very meagre, and ii Is by
mo means improbable that platinum
may vet be discover d there in
quantities rivalling the supply of
/ Russia.
" a popular error respecting plati
mum is that its intrinsic value Is the
same as that of gold. At one time II
did approximate TO gold in value, but
never quite reached it, and is now
worth only IS to Sl2 an DUNE, accord
mo TO the work expended upon il in
/ getting 1t into required forms and tho
amount alloy it contains. The alloy
used for it is iridium, which hardens
4 it, and the more iridium 1t contains
the more difficult it is to work. and,
coused the more expensive.
When pure, platinum is as soft as sill
YER but by tie addition of iridium, it
/ becomes the hardest of metals. The
great difficulty IN manipulating platl
mum isits excessive resistance TO heat.
A temperature that will make steel
run like water and melt down fire
clay has absolutely no effect upon 1t.
/ You may put a piece Of platinum wire
no thicker than human hair into a
blast furnace where ingots Of steel are
melting down all around IL and the
bit of wire will come out as absolutely
unchanged as if it dad been in AN ice
box. all the time. No means have
been discovered for accurately deter
mining the melting temperature OF
platinum, but IL must be enormous.
And yet If you put q bit of lead INTO
the crucibe with the platinum. both
metals will melt down together AT the
low temperature that fuses the lead,
and if you try to melt lead IN a platl-
mum crucible you will find that as
soon as the lead mets the platinum
with which it comes IN contact also
melts and your cruclble Is destroyed.
"A distinguishing characteristic OF
platinum is its extreme duclllty. A
wire can be made from it finer than
from any other metal. Ikave sample
in my pocket the gauge Of which,, only
one two thous tndth of an inch, and 1t
is practicable 10 make thinner 1t has
even been affirmed that platinum
wire has been made so fine as 10 be
invisible to the naked eye, but that /
do not state as of my own knowledge.
This wire my son made
Mr. Baker exhibited the sample
spoken Of 1t locked like a tross Of
silky hair, and had 1T not been shown
upon a piece Of black paper you could
hardly have seen it, He went on
THE draw plates by means Of
which these fine wires are made, are
sapphires and rubies. You may
fancy for yourself how extremely
delicate must be the work o. making
holes Of such exceeding smallness TO
accurate gauge, too, in those very
hard stones. get all my draw plates
4 from an old Swiss lady in New York,
who makes them herself, TO order
But, delicate as is the work Of boring
/ the holes there is something still
more delicate in The processes that
/ produce such fine wire as this That
something is the filing Of lcng point
on the wire to enable the pocking Of
the end Of it through the draw plate
so that it can be caught by the nip
pers Imagine yourself fling a long
taperng point on the end Of wire
only one cighteen-hundredth Of an
inch in diameter in order 10 get 1T
through a draw pate that will bring
it down to one two tbousandth. Ny son
/ does that. without using magnify
ing glass. | cannot say positively
what uses this very thin wire is put,
but sometimes i'm surgery, | believe,
.cither for fastening together portions
/ of hone or for operations a newly