The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-01-24
DEAREST OF COMMON METALS,

Reasons Why Platinum is I'm Good Demand
at $40 an Ounce.
"What do you suppose is the most expen-
sive part of those in%candescent electric
lamps which we see burning in that shop
window?' asked an electrician of a Wash
ington Post reporter.
You would naturally suppose it would be
the glass bulb, or perhaps the brass fitting
for screwing it into the socket, but you
would be wrong. Those two little pieces of
platinum wire, SO fine that 0 can hardly
perceive them, which pass through the glass
stem up IN tho base of the lamp. to which
the fine carbon ilanent is attached, enter
more greatly into the cost than any other
mart OF these now almost indispensable
electric lamps"
Why don't they use some other metal
than platinum"
because platinum is the only metal in
which the expansion and contraction are the
same as in'giass: and 4 great fortune awaits
the man who cfn produce a cheap metal or
. 10y in viii hthis valuable propertyof plati-
mum can be preserved. You probably know
that q vacuum must be maintained in these
incandescent lamp bulbs, or the carbon
ilament would burn out and become des
troyed the instant tho electric current 1s
turned on. Therefore the reason for using
the platinum wire for running through the
glass is because unequal expansion between
the glass and wire would either crack the
glass or create a space around the wire, and
even though infinitely minute, the air
would find its way in and destroy the car
bon.
1.-THE cost of platinum at the present
market price in London is go per ounce,
or about the same as gold, and the amount
~z.@I e. A1,r rS-~1 nI1rr hnr -
be This demand, together with
the ircreased cost of production, has caused
the price to advance abaut 100 per cent. in
eighteen months. In each sixteen-candle
power lamp there are from fou to eight
grains OF platinum. If six grams are
taken as an average, one ounce will be used
in eighty lamps. Based on the increased
use OF ~incandescent lights within the last
two years, it is safe to state that the de.
mand for sixteen-candie power lamps, OF
their equivalent, in the year 1891 will be
100000. This means a demand for 1885,
coo ounces Of platinum, which, at the pres.
ent price. will amount to considerably oyel
s., 100000 for this item alone.
the electrician, lis quite as inter
esting rs its qualities are remarkable
During the sixteenth century it was founc
with gold in the Darien mines, but tht
Spanish government which controlled ths
Julil6b, uBu HUI llhh6 AUDWu INc 0l6cOVEIf
of this new white metal, az it was found Il
be a good material with which to adulterat,
gold. The deposits of platinum in the IRA
mountains, whence the supply ia mosti,
drawn. were discovered about 1882. ant
have been worked in connection wit
gold mines by the Russian government
since 1898. Owing to the large yield O
gold, the platinum WAS for a long time sol
cheaply, but, with the growing scarcity O
gold, the cost of producing the other meta
increased.
"A well known chemist says that withou
platinum crucibles, which share the infusi
bility of porcelain with the chemical inert
ness of those of gold, the composition @
most metals could not have been ascertain
ed, and chemistry could not awe come /
its present level. Very few people in TIL
country are probably aware that pure plat
mum has ever been coined. 1t was coine
by Russia, however, as late as 1864, at whic
time it had been put into circulation to Il
value of over 81 100000"