New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1914-02-25
SAVING PLATINUM.
4 Little Drama Enacted In Uncle
Sans Assay Offices.

+
SCIENCE IN THE STAR ROLE.
Hiehbrow Professors Filled Up the
Cast, and. With Acids and Precious
Metals ~ 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. ~. q; J.,
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
q small percentage OF impurities that
could be removed by fiising with inter.
Germany went the United States one
better in this. The. professors over
there, men whose genius for scientific
detail is unsurpassedsby those OF any
other nation, perfected d process Tor
reclining by: electricity. Simply stated.
1t II nothing more nor less. than electric
plating. The smeiter bars are placed
in the plating bath. and the gold ID. de-
posited1 in an absolutely pure state.
leaving the base metals behind In soiu-
tion. 5iSs = .--;::s.
+ 1t was this residue that interested
the high brow professors, The fact
that platinum is frequently found with
gold has been recognised ever since
the science OF metailurEy was IN slwIad-
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. 1t; takes q comb
nation Of nitric and mutiatic acids to
get either of these two metals In solu-
don. Silver. on the other hand. fs
readily soluble in nitric acid. No ono
ever thought of testing q nitric acid
solution of silver for the presence Of
platinum because Of the theory. sound
as religion. that platinum, could not b
dissolved by nitric acid Therefore, II
was argued. it 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. 80
into the sewer it went -: :;
T1AS FuSopouoOs>e, yl,<>SvG So
At the first step they uncovered tho
dusky gentleman In the. wood pile.
They discovered a curious fact-namer
". that, while platinum alone was not
soluble In nitric acid. some OF it's al
Toys with silver were soluble For
instance. q composition Of: s 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 5000 u 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 It IL 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 II found.
for Instance. IN what ID: popularH
known as Guinea gold. Guinea gold
has peculiar luster all its own. It II