The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-08-23
FAcrs ARour fL.ArINUM.
1t AIelts Easily in the Presence of Lead
Drawing Wires that Are AInost Invisible.

Drawing Wires that Are Almost Invisible.
New York Sun.
After an excellent day of weakfshing on
Barnegat bay and an unexeeptienable supper Of
the good pldfashioned, country tavern kind a
social party of anglers sat about ON Uncle Joe
Parkers broad porch at Forked river. smoking
and enjoying the cool fragrant breath of the
cedar swamp, when somehow the chat 6rifted to
the subject of assaying and refining the precious
metals. That was just where one OF the party,
Mr.. p. w. Baker, of Newark, was at home, and
IN the course of an impromptn lecture hestold the
party more about the topic under discussion aud
especially the platinum branch of it, than they
aver knew before.
Our firm he said, practically does all the
platinum business of this country, and the de-
mand for this material is so great that we never
can get more than we want of it. The principal
portion, or, in fact. nearly all of it, comes from
the famous mines of the DeInideff family, who
have the monopoly Of the production in Russia
IL is all refined and made into sheets of various
thlcknesseS, and into wires of certain com
mereial sizes before it comes to as but we have
frequently to cut, roll, and redraw it to new
forms and sizes to meet the demands upon
At one time it coined in Rassia but it is no
longer applied to that use. We have obtained
some very good crude platinum ore from South
America, and have refined il successfully, but
the supply from that source IS as yet,
very small I 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 meagTe and it is
by no means improbable that platinum may yet
be discovered there in quantities rivaling the
supply of Russia.
"A popular error respecting platinum is that
its intrinsic value is the same as that of gold.
AT one time it did approximate to gold in vallre,
but never quite reached it, and is now worth
only SIS to $l2 an ounce according to the work
expended upon it in getting it into required
forms and the amount of alloy it contains The
alloy used for 1t is iridium, which hardens it
and the more iridium it contains the more diff
cult it Is TO work. and conseQuentiy the more
expensive. When pure, platinum is as soft as
silver. but by the addition of Iridium it becomes
the hardest of metals The great difficulty in
manipulating platinum is its excessive re-
sistance to heat. A temperature that
and melt down Rre-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 it, and the bit of wire viii come out as
absolutely unchanged as il it had been in an ice
box all the time. No means have been discov-
cred for accurately determining the melting
temperature OF platinum, but it must be enor-
nous. And yet If you put bit of lead into the
erucTble with the platinum, both metals will
melt down together at the low Temperature that
fuses the lead, and If YOU try to met lead in a
platinum erQcible you will find that as soon as
the lead meits the platinum with which it comes
In contact also meits, and your crucible is de
stroyed
"A distinguished characteristic of platinum is
its extreme ductility. a wire can be made from
it finer than from any other metal I have
sample IN my pocket the guage of which is only
ore two-thousandth Of an inch, and it is prac-
ticable to make it timer It has even been
affirmed that platinum wire has been made SO
fine as to be invisible TO the naked eye but that
do not state as of my knowledge This wire my
son made
Mr. Baker exhibited the sample spoken Of
It looked like a tress of silky hair, and had it
not been shown upon a piece of black paper
could hardly have been seen He went on
1.-The draw plates, by means of which these
fine wires are made, are sapphires and rubies
You may fancy for yourself how extremely deli
cate must be the work of making holes of such
exceeding s1naFlness to accurate cuage, too in
those very hard stones. get all my draw plates
from an Old Swiss lady in New York who makes
them herself, to order Bat, delicate as is the
| work of boring the holes, there is something
still mere delicate in the processes that produce
suen fine wire as this. That something is the
| fling of long point on the wire to enable the
/ peking of the end of it through the draw plate
! so that it can be caught by the nippers Imagine
i yourself fling long tapeIing point on the end
of wire only one eighteenth hundredth of an
| inch in diameter in order to get it through a
draw plate that will bring it down to one two
1 theusaHdth, My son does that, without
using magnifying glass. cannot say
positively what uses this very thin
| wire is put to, but something in surgery, l be
| heve, either for fastening together portions of
| bone or for operations uewlysinvented in
strument has been described to me- which, If it
does what has been affirmed is one of the great
est and most wonderful discoveries of modern
science. A very THO platinum wire loop,
brought to ineandescenee by the current from a
battery-whieh, though of great power is SO
small that it hangs from the lapel of the opera
| tors COATS used, instead of the knife for ex-
eisions and certain amputations. 1t scars as it
cuts, prevents the loss of blood, and is absolute
ly painless which is the most astonishing thing
about it. | am assured that large tumor has
been cut from a child in this way and that the
child laughed while the operation was being
performed, and that without any anaesthetic
having been administered.
''Our greatest consumers of platinum are the
electricians, particularly the incandescent light
companies. supply the platinum wire for both
the Edison and the Maxim companies, and the
quantity they require SO constantly increases
that the demand threatens to exceed the supply
of the metal Sheets of plantinum are bought
by chemists, who have them converted into cru
cibies and other forms.n
The reporters curiosity was awakened by Mr..
Bakers mention Of the old lady who made those
very fine draw plates, and Oh his return to the
CITY he hunted her up Mrs Francis A. ,Jeanuot
the lady IN question, was found in neat apart
ments in q handsome fiat in West Fifty first
street Age has silvcred her hair, but her eyes
are still bright, and her movements Indicate
elasticity and strength She is anative Of Neuf
/ chatef, Switzerland, and speaks English with a
little difficulty, but whenever the reporters En-
glish was little hard for her a very pretty girl
with brilliant eyes and crinkly jet-biaek hair
who subsequently proved to be a daughter of
Mrs. Jeannot, came to the rescue. With the
girls occasional aid the old lady's story was as
follows:
Il have been in this business for thirty years
learned it when was girl in Switzerland
Very few in this country know anything cor
rectly about it Numbers Of people endeavor to
find it out, and they experiment to learn it,
especially to do it by machinery, but without
success But, ali mel 1t is no longer business
that is anything worth. Thirty years ago many
stone draw plates were wanted, for then there
was a great deal done in flagree gold iewelry
Then the plates were worth from S. so up to as
high as $I5 according to the magnitude Of the
stones and the size Of the holes bored in them
Now, however, all that good time is passed No
hndv wants flagree gold ieWelrY any more and