The Mobridge news. [volume] (Mobridge, Walworth Co., S.D.) 190?-1917, 1913-07-11
SAVING PLATINUM
A Little Drama Enacted In Uncle
Sans Assay Offices.
SCIENCE IN THE STAR ROLE.
Hiahbrow Professors Filled Up the
Cast, and, With Acids and Precious
Metals as Stage Properties, They
Scored q 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 Daser metals when
II 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 a process for
refining by electricity. Simply stated,
it 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 eve since
the science of metallurgy was In swad-
ding clothes; also the fact that gold
and platinum have n quality In COM
mon-i. 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. IL there wasn't enough
silver in the solution to make 1t worth
while to extract It. then, Of course,
there could not be any platinum, 80
into the W 1t 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. a composition Of 8 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 a 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-
mum in large quantities are going to
be found. Little of the gold coming
from the western United states and
Alaska contains platinum. It 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. It Is found
for Instance. in what Is popularity
known as Guinea gold. Guinea gold
has a peculiar luster all its own. 1t /,
highly priced in the jewelry trade FOL
this same peculiar color.
There are vast reaches Of wilderness
In South America that. filed with
miasmic swamps and lurid savage.
armed with poisoned arrows. have 81
far resisted the advance of the white
nan 1t seems not too much to expec
that sooner or later, when these dis
tricts are exploited. platinum in larg'
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 tn
material consideration Of $20.67 al
ounce. which the governments Of tn,
earth have decreed must be its price
To- and for evermore They vii
have to build a second story exten
sion on the omance Of the metal tina
Is worth twice as much as gold.
Now that Uncle Sam is finding thi
mine Of platinum in the supposedly un
alleged bars that the big refining com
panies are sending in from their smelt
ers, the interesting question is arising
who owns the platinum. Uncle Sam o.
the r~efneries? Uncle Sam bought thei
gold. refined it for them at cost ant
paid them dollar for dollar out Of hi
pocket. Actually he was out on tn
transaction. Now that he has stoppe'
the leak in his drainpipe. he is q litt'
ahead.
Naturally, II n can play at q gam
two can play at the same game. Som,
Of the bigger smelter companies. who's
output Is sufficient. have undertakes
the task Of recovering this platinum
themselves. II Uncle Sam can help on
his payroll with platinum residue
there is no reaso why q privately con
Quoted smelter cannot do the sam
thing. So the electrical method Of re
fning Is coming more and more int
use, and the highbrow professors Il
the minis who have been searching TO