Arizona republican., 1910-10-15
PLATINUM AND GOLD.

Platinum is now more costly than
gold, a fact that is significant of sew
eral things. Gold is quoted at $2O67
an ounce, while platinum has gone to
$3.50 an ounce, an advance of So in a
year. The two metals have sometimes
been almost at parity in days gone
by, although the supply of platinum
has always been far below that of
gold Russia once used some small
platinum coins, and the metal has
probably appeared in the coinage of
other countries. Its chief use, how
ever. has always been IN the arts
Much of it has been used in electric
light bulbs, and it has long been a
most important adjunct to the scien-
tific laboratory jewelers. also use IL
in the setting of some gems Every
considerable chemical laboratory has
vessels Of platinum worth from some
hundreds TO some thousands of dol
lars. Fortunately for the cost of Ia
boratory experimentation, platinum
is practically indestructible, and the
chemist uses his platinum plate" a
life time, or has made over when 1t
is injured by accident. The metal
was early discovered in the United
States. and is still produced here, in
the Ural mountains of Russia and as
ISOLATED with copper in the Alps. 1t
undergoes no form of oxidation by
exposure to air or water and cahnot
be dissolved in any single acid
though 1t slowly yields to the attack
Of nitromuriatic acid. No forge fire
can melt 1t, but 1t may be fused in
the electric current. 1t is far better
suited for some of the special pur-
poses to which it has been applied in
the arts than gold would be, though
the fact that platinum is considerably
heavier than gold is a disadvantage
to the former.
II platinum continues to rise, or
even maintains its present relative
value to gold, we may see the latter
substituted for the former In some
uses. 1t will be interesting to see
how strongly the increased value of
platinum shall stimulate prospecting
for this extremely scarce MEAL Mean
while, the relative value of gold and
platinum will suggest some interest
ing considerations to those who have
watched the history of gold, and es-
pecially to the people of the United
States, where 1t has figured so sig
nificantly in our politics, and where
its increasing abundance is held in
part responsible for the present high
price of many necessaries. Within
about forty years large part of the
civilized world has adopted the single
gold monetary standard, with the re-
suit that the demand for gold in the
worlds coinage has enormously in
creased. Within the latter thirty
years of that period and especially
within the last fifteen years, the
worlds output of gold has, 1t is be-
lieved, more han kept pace with the
increased demand for 1t as money
with the result that the value of gold
is supposed to have decreased so as to
disarrange the scale of commodity
prices. During the same period there
has been no such spectacular change
in the demand for platinum or in the
supply of the metal, though the de-
mand must pretty steadily have
grown. When the so-called ''crime of
'73" was perpetrated gold and plati-
mum were nearly at parity. We have
since fought two bitter political cam
paigns upon the theory advanced by
one ardent set of political thinkers
that the relative scarcity of gold was
bringing us to ruin, but now we see
platinum more than so per cent
above the value of gold. II the rel
alive value holds the specialists and
the people will have food for thought
Boston Herald