The Adair County news., 1912-12-25
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 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 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 treating the smelter bars of gold
with nitric acid. which dissolved out
the baser metals, leaving the gold with
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 a process for
refining by electricity. Simply stated,
1t is nothing more nor less than electric
plating. The smelter bars are placed
In 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
the science of metallurgy was in swad-
ding clothes; also the fact that gold
and platinum have one quality in COM
mon-1. E., that no single acid known
will dissolve them. 1t takes a combi-
nation Of nitric and muriatic acids to
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 it, then, of course.
there could not be any platinum, so
into the sewer it 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 not
soluble in nitric acid, some of its al
Toys with silver were soluble. For
instance, composition of 5 per cent
platinum in silver is readily soluble.
Right there was the clew leading to 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 plati-
mum at the rate of $1,000 q month has |
been offered for sale by Uncle Sam.
1t is Interesting to trace the sources
of this gold in that the facts suggest /
that sooner or later deposits of plati- !
nun in large quantities are going to |
be 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. 1t is found,
for instance. in what is popularity .
known as Guinea gold. Guinea gold
has 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 is probably a-borning now
to sing the romance Of Platinum gulch.
The romance of gold is founded on the
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 a second story extern
sion on the romance of the metal that
Is worth twice as much as gold.
Now that Uncle Sam is finding this
mine of platinum in the supposedly IN
alleged bars that the big refining CON-
panies are sending in from their smelt-
Frs, the interesting question is arising.
Who owns the platinum, Uncle Sam or
he refneries? Uncle Sam bought their
gold. refined it 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
he leak in his drainpipe. he is a little
ahead.
Naturally, if one can play at a game
,wo can play at the same game. Some
If the bigger smelter companies, whose