The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-19
PLATINUM RARE METAL.
Costs over 800 Pound and Found
Chiefly in the TRIAL Mountains.
From the Manchester ". H. Unlon

From the Manchester ". H. Union.
The steady and rapid increase in the de-
mand for platinum has resulted in a sharp
advance in price, and consequently in
somewhat corresponding increase in pro-
duction, although the metal is so rare
that the production by no means keeps
even pace with the growing demand. At
present the price for crude platinum at
the mines in Russia is 800 marks-about
f45 or nearly $225-a kilogram, a kilogram
being two and two-tenths pounds. The
Russian ministry of finances has recently
issued a report on the production of plat
mum in Russia. 1t has long been known
that Russia led all other countries in the
production of this metal, although 1t was
first discovered in America, and the report
shows that Russia at present furnishes
forty times that produced in all other
countries taken together. 1t is not vast
amount either. In the year 1880 the GUAM
tty produced in Russia amounted to 2.9i6
kilograms; in 1895 it reached 4,4l3 kilo-
grams. This rare metal is found in Rus
STA only in the southern Ural where in
mining for the metal the still rarer metal
iridium is found, but only in small guam
titles. Last year the quantity of iridium
obtained did not amount to more than four
and one-tenth kilograms, or about nine
pounds. Platinum is a refractory metal
and the methods of working it are not
known in Russia, so that the ore is ex-
ported to Germany and to England, and
Russia reimports so much of the worked
up platinum as it requires.
The story of the discovery and develop
ment of platinum is one of more than or
binary interest. Mere traces of platinum
are found in almost all native gold. AS
arltr fl,af 8
fury it was noticed that the gold ore in
the Spanish mines of Darien includes
grains of white metal endowed with the
qualities of noble metal, and yet dis
tinctly different from silver. This inter-
esting fact remained unknown in Europe
however, because the Spanish government
found that the new metal lent itself most
admirably to the adulteration of gold and
prohibited its expectation. II was only at
about the middle of the last century that
the metal began to find Its way TO Eu-
rope and TO be come known there at first
as curiosity, under its Spanish name of
"platina del Pinto'-'the little silver from
the river Pinto" The chemists gave their
attention to it. but an amateur Count
Won Sickengen, 1t appears, was the first
who succeeded in working il. This was
in 1772; the first platinum crucible was
produced by Achard in 1854. In 1928 an
account of a superior method of working
platinum was puDuSneu Dy WoHaStOn,
who had already wrought it as a rich
source of revenue for years.
Pure, compact platinum is a tin-white
metal, about as soft as pure copper and
having nearly, but not quite, the Elasticity
of gold. 1t is not changed by air water
or steam at any temperature and is proof
against the action of all ordinary Single
acids, even including hydrofiuoric. 1t has
been used since 1884 for crucibes, being
superior TO porcelain, and. although the
first cost is great, being found cheaper in
the end than glass. The rapid develop
ment of applied electricity has greatly
broadened it's field of usefulness, and
hence the increased interest in the pro-
duction and cost OF the metal. The ore,
as above stated, was first found in South
America and is found there chiefly in the
provinces of Chocos and Barbacos Uni
ted States of Colombia. 1t is also found
in Brazil, in San Domingo, in California
at the Rogue river in Oregon, In Canada
and in the island of Borneo, but the chief
supply comes, as shown by the report of
the Russian minister of finance, from the
Ural mountains-forty times the entire
production of all other regions taken to-