The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-01-29
SAVING PLATINUM
A Little Drama Enacted In Uncle
Sans Assay Offices.
SCIENCE IN THE STAR ROLE.

| SCOEGQ a 0fIIltduI SdSSCoos
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
It 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
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.
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-i e., that no single acid known
will dissolve them. It takes q combi-
nation of nitric and muriatic acids to
get either Of these two metals in solu-
ion. Silver, on the other hand, Is
| readily soluble In nitric acid. No one
ever thought Of testing nitric acid
| solution CT silver for the presence Of
platinum because Of the theory, sound
| as religion, that platinum could not be
dissolved by nitric acid Therefore. 1t
was argued, If there wasn't enough
silver In the solution to make it worth
while to extract t. 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-
", that, while platinum alone was not
soluble in nitric acid, some OF its al
loys with silver were soluble. For
instance, a composition Of s per cent
platinum in silver is readily soluble.
Right there was the ::;@Tv- leading to the
discovery that for years out OF mem
| ory untold quantities Of the precious
| metal, essential above all others In
electrical manufa ctures, had been run.
ming into the sewer All solutions were
carefully tested. Salts Of iron were
added, precipitates supposedly Of silver
were analyzed, and since then plati-
mum at the rate Of $1,000 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 plat.
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 popularly
known as Guinea gold. Guinea gold
has a peculiar luster all its own. It 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. It 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 no"
to sing the romance Of Platinum gulch
The romance Of gold is founded on the
material consideration Of S2o.67 al
ounce, which the governments OF the
earth have decreed must be its price
now and for evermore. They viii
have to build a second story exten
sion on the romance Of the metal thai
Is worth twice as much as gold
Now that Uncle Sam is finding this
mine Of platinum in the supposedly un
alleged bars that the big refining com
panies are sending in from their sneit
ers, the interesting question is arising
Who owns the platinum, Uncle Sam OF
the refneries? Uncle Sam bought then
gold, refined it for them at cost ane
| paid them dollar for dollar out OF nj:
pocket. Actually he was out on the
transaction. Now that he has stopped
the leak in his drainpipe, be Is LITTLE
ahead.
Naturally, If one can play at game
two can play at the same game. soN'
of the bigger smelter companies. whose
output is sufficient. have undertaken
the task Of recovering this platinum
themselves. If Uncle Sam can help ou
his payroll with platinum resloue'
there is no reason why privately con
Quoted smelter cannot do the SAM
thing. So the electrical method OF re
timing IS coming more and more lnt'
use. and the highbrow professors II
the n,ints who have been searching 10
platinum have discovered that tn
| smelter bars sent in for coinage are al
most 100 per cent fine. without so mucs
as smell Of platinum IN fhem.-f
Irving Anderson in New York 1r1oune
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