Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1913-01-16
SAVING PLATINUM.
A Little Drama Enacted In Uncle
Sans Assay Offices.
SCIENCE IN THE STAR ROLE.


Cast, and. With Acids and Precious
Metals ~ Stage Properties. They
Scored . Brilliant Success.
Even the United States government.
has become possessed Of the presen,
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 beer
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 IL 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
ti0n.
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 CON-
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-
1on. 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
a. 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 1t. then. of course.
there could not be any platinum. Sc
into the sewer 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-
~. that. while platinum alone was not
soluble in nitric acid. some of it's al
Toys with silver were soluble For
instance. composition Of 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 manufa ctures, had been run
ming into the sewer. All solutions were
carefully tested. Salts of iron were
were analysed. and since then plati-
mum at the rate of $1,000 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 plat.
mum 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 II is found
for instance. in what Is popularity
known as Guinea gold. Guinea gold
has peculiar luster all its own. 1t Ia
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
vu1fh bou
far resisted the advance of the white
man, 1t seems not too much to expect
that sooner or later. when these dis
ticts are exploited. platinum in large
quantities will be discovered Some
Bret Harte ia probably aborning now
to sing the romance of Platinum gulch
The romance of gold Is founded on the
material consideration of $2O.67 an
ounce, which the governments Of the
earth have decreed must he 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 this
mine OF platinum in the supposedly I'M
alioyed 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 or
the re6nerles! Uncle Sam bought their
gold. refined II for them at cost and
paid them dollar for dollar ont of his
pocket. Actually he was out on the
transaction. Now that he has stopped
the leak In his drainpipe. he is little
ahead
Naturally. II one can play at game
two can play mt the same game. Some
OF the bigger smelter companies. whose
Oul nui L. suHia.isAIai Aa uularIa ken