The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1913-03-22
SAVING Pin TINUM|
A Little Drama Enacted IN Uncle
Sans Assay Offices.
SCIENCE IN THE STAR ROLE.
tsishhrew Professors Filled Up tha
cast, and, With Acids and Precious
Metals - Stage Properties, They
Scored : Brilliant Success.

Metals - Stage Properties, They
Scored Brilliant Success.
Even the United States government
has become possessed Of the present
day fever to eliminate any waste aud
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
it came from the mint consisted merely
of treating the smelter bars of gold
with nitric acid. which dissolved ouf
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 process for
refining by electricity. Simply stated.
Il 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-
tion-
It 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-L e.. that no single acid known
viii dissolve them. 1t takes a combi-
nation OF nitric and muriatic acids TO
get either Of these two metals In solu.
ton. Silver. OF 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
as religion. that platinum could not be
dissolved by nitric acid Therefore. ii
was argued. If 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 1t went,
The professors began to experiment.
At the first step they uncovered the
dusky gentleman In the wood piles
They discovered curious fact-nanle-
| ~. that. while platinum alone was not
soluble in nitric acid. some Of it's al
Toys with silver were soluble. For
instance. composition of 5 per cent
In<t
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. precipltates 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.
/ It 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
l. <At<tcAb %SAtA4lo II ID AOtbb
| 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
1 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
| 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 a second story exten-
sion on the romance of the metal that
Is worth twice as much as gold.
! Now that Uncle Sam is finding thi;
mine of platinum in the supposedly uD
i alloyed bars that the big refining com
panies are sending In from their smelt
srs. the interesting question is arising
Who owns the platinum. Uncle Sam Oh
the refineries. Uncle Sam bought thei>
gold. rehped it for them at cost and
paid then ollar for dollar out of his
pocket. Actually he was out on the
transaction. Now that be has stopped
the leak 10 his drainpipe, he is a little
ahead.
Naturally If one can play at game
two can play AT the same game. Some
of the bigger smelter companies. whose
output IS sufficient. have undertaken
the task or recovering this platinum
themselves. II Uncle sam can help Qua
| his payroll with platinum residues
there is no reason why privately con
Quoted sfaelter cannot do the same
thing. So the electrieaf method of re-