The Columbus commercial., 1912-12-22
SAVING PLATINUM
A Little Drama Enacted In Uncle
Sans Assay Offices.
SCIENCE IN THE STAR ROLE.
Highbrow Professors Filled Up the
Cast, and. With Acids and Precious
Metals as Stage Properties, They
Scored 3 Brilliant Success.


Even the United States government
has become possessed of the present
day fever TO eliminate any waste and
stop leaks in the methods OF doing
things The results, particularly IN
the mints and assay offices. have been
remarkable.
For instance. the old method OF ex-
tracing gold from baser metals when
il came from the mint consisted merely
of treating the smelter bars OF gold
with nitric acid, which dissolved out
the baser metals. leaving the gold with
a small percentage OF impurities that
could be removed by fusing with inter
Germany went the United States one
better in this. The professors over
there, men whose genius for scientific
detail Is unsurpassed by those of any
other nation, perfected process for
refining by electricity. Simply stated,
1t is nothing more nor less than electric
plating. The smelter bars are placed
ia the plating bath, and the gold is de-
posted In an absolutely pure state.
leaving the base metals behind In soln.
tion.
1t was this residue that interested
the high brow professors. The fact
that platinum is frequently found with
gold has been recognized ever since
the science of metallurgy was In swads
ding clothes; also the fact that gold
and platinum have one quality in com.
m0n-i. e., that no single acid known
will dissolve them. IL takes q combi
nation of nitric and muriatic acids 10
get either of these two metals In solu-
ton. Silver. on the other hand, IS
readily soluble in nitric acid. No one
ever thought of testing a nitric acid
solution Of silver for the presence OF
platinum because of the theory, sound
as religion, that platinum could not be
dissolved by nitric acid Therefore, it
was argued, If there wasn't enough
silver In the solution to make it worth
while to extract ii, then, OF course,
there could not be any platinum. 50
into the sewer il went
The professors began to experiment
At the first step they uncovered the
dusky gentleman in the wood pile
They discovered a curious fact name
ly, that, while platinum alone was rot
soluble In nitric acid, some Of its al
loys with silver were soluble. For
instance, composition OF per cent
platinum In silver is readily soluble
Right there was the clew leading 10 the
discovery that for years out of mem
Dry untold quantities of the precious
metal, essential above all others IN
electrical manufactures, had been run.
ming into the sewer. All solutions were
carefully tested Salts Of iron were
added. precipitates supposedly of silver
were analysed, and since then platl-
mum at the rate of 5000 month las
been offered for sale by Uncle Sam.
IL is Interesting to trace the sources
OF this gold in that the facts suggest
that sooner or later deposits of plat
mum In large quantities are going to
be found. Little OF the gold coming
from the western United states and
Alaska contains platinum. II Is found
almost entirely in the gold mined In
Mexico and South America. Cold from
these districts Is coming In larger
quantities year after year. II is found.
for Instance. in what is popularity
known as Guinea gold Guinea gold
has a peculiar luster all its own. 1t is
h'sh'y pr'v-d in the tewei-y trade FOR
this sams peculiar color.