Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1912-12-19
SAVING PLATINUM
A Little Drama Enacted In Uncle
Sans Assay Offices.
SCIENCE IN THE STAR ROLE.


Even the United States government
has become possessed Of the present
day fever to eliminate any w<<F ard
stop leaks In the methods Of ooiis
things. The results. particularly In
the minis and assay Offices. have been
remarkable.
For instance. the old method Of ex.
tracing gold from baser metals when
1t came from the mint consisted merely
Of trenting the smelter bars Of gold
with nitric ncid. which dissolved out
the laser metals. leaving the gold with
Il 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 IL nothing more nor less than electric
plating. The smelter bars are placed
III the plating bath. and the gold is de-
posted In an absolutely pure state.
leaving the base metals behind IN solu.
ton
1t was this residue that interested
the high brow professors. The fact
that platinum is frequently found with
gold has been recognized ever since
tue science of metallurgy was in swad-
ding clothes; also the fact that gold
and platinum have one quality in com.
mon-i. e., that no single acid known
will dissolve them. 1t takes q comb.
nation Of nitric and muriatic acids to
get either Of these two metals in solu-
ton Silver. Oh the other hand. is
readily soluble in nitric acid. No one
ever thought Of testing nitric acid
solution OF silver for the presence Of
platinum because of the theory. sound
us religion. that platinum could not be
dissolved bv nitric acid. Therefore. it
was argued. II there wasn't enough
silver In the solution to make It worth
while to extract 1t. then. Of course.
there could not be- any platinum. so
into the sewer It went
'rhe professors began to experiment.
At the first step they uncovered the
dusky gentleman IN the wood pile.
They discovered a curious fact-name-
". that. while platinum alone was not
soluble In nitric acid. some Of it's al
Toys with silver were soluble. For
instance. composition of 8 per cent
platinum In silver Is readily soluble.
Right there was the clew lending to the
discovery that for years out Of mem.
"ry 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. aud since then plati-
nun ut the rate of $4,000 a month has
been offered for sale by Uncle Sam.
1t il interesting to trace the sources
of this gold in that the facts suggest
that sooner or later deposits of plati-
mum In large quantities are going to
he found. Little of the gold coming
from the western United states and
Alaska contains platinum 1t Is found
almost entirely in the gold mined in
Mexico and South America Gold 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 II peculiar luster all its own. 1t Is
highly priced IN the jewelry trade for
this same peculiar color
There are vast reaches Of wilderness
In South America that. filed with
miasmic swamps and lurid savages
armed with poisoned arrows. have SO
far resisted the advance of the white
man. 1t seems not too much to expect
that sooner or later. when these dis
tricts ARE exploited. platinum in large
quantities will be discovered Some
Bret Harte ia probably a.borning now
to sing the romance Of Platinum gulch.
The romance of gold ia founded on the
material consideration Of $20.67 an
ounce. which the governments of the
earth have decreed must be its price
now and for evermore. They will
have to build second story exten.
sion ON the romance of the metal that
's worth twice as much as gold.
Now that Uncle Sam Is finding this
mine Of platinum in the supposedly un-
allOyed bars that the big refining com.
vanies are sending in from their smelt-
ers. the interesting question is arising.
Who owns the platinum. Uncle Sam or
the rehneries: Uncle Sam bought their
guild. refined II for them at cost and
paid them dollar for dollar out of his
pocket. Actually he was out on the
Now that he has stopped
the leak in his drainpipe. he is a. little
ahead
Naturally. II one can play at a game
two can play Mt the same game. Some
Of the bigger smelter companies. whose
output is sufficient. have undertaken
the task Of recovering this platinum
themselves II Uncle Sam can help out
his payroll with platinum residues
there is no reason why a privately con.
Quoted smeIter cannot do the same
thing. So the electrical method of re-
timing IL coming thUre and more into
Use. ami the hfghbrow professors In
the minis who have been searching for
platinum have discovered that the
smelter bars sent in for coinage are al;
most 100 per cent fine. without so much
az a smell of platinum in them.-F
irving Anderson in New York Tribune
If thou faint in the day of adversely
thy strength is small.-Book Of Prov.
CRIBS.
Setting Her Right.
"You are familiar. l presume. with