Platinum

“ PRECIOUS (O. Fr. precios, mod. précieux, Lat. pretiosus, of high value or price, pretium) , costly or of high value, particularly used in political economy of those metals which are “ valuable enough to be used as a standard of value and abundant enough for coinage ” (The Century Dictionary) . The term is thus practically confined to gold and silver. Platinum in theory may be included as it was used for coinage in Russia in 1828 ”

“ Consider the varied and diversified applications of platinum, which has owed its existence as a useful metal entirely to the labours of an illustrious chemical philosopher; look at the beautiful yellow afforded by one of the new metals, chrome; consider the medical effects of iodine in some of the most painful and disgusting maladies belonging to human nature, and remember how short a time investigations have been made for applying the new substances. ”

“ In order that we may understand better the position which gold occupies in the arts and trades of the world, let us compare it with other metals, and first with platinum. This mineral is far less abundant and has many properties which make it valuable in the arts. Like gold, platinum is malleable and ductile and does not tarnish in the air, but it differs from gold in not being easily fusible, so that it is used in the laboratory for crucibles. The steel-gray color of platinum is, however, so much less attractive than the yellow of gold, that it is not used for ornamental purposes. ”

“ So he is able to fuse a large body of platinum in this manner. When the platinum is melted, he takes off the top and pours out from the bottom piece, like a crucible, and makes his cast. This is the furnace by which he fuses his forty pounds or fifty pounds of platinum at once. The metal is raised to a heat that no eye can bear. There is no light, and shadow, no chiaro-oscuro there; all is the same intensity of glow. You look in, and you cannot see where the metal or the lime is; it is all as one. ”

“ But up to the end of 1907 not more than 160 tons altogether of platinum had been produced throughout the world since its discovery, in spite of its rapidly increasing price, for it is now worth, weight for weight, about 25 per cent, more than gold. ”

“ Plat′inise, to coat with platinum.—ns. Plat′inoid, one of the metals with which platinum is always found associated—palladium iridium, &c.; Plat′inotype, a method of producing photographs by means of paper coated with a preparation of platinum: a picture so produced.—adj. Plat′inous, containing or consisting of platinum. [Sp. platina—plata, plate.]
Platitude, plat′i-tūd, n. flatness: that which exhibits dullness of thought: an empty remark made as if it were important.—n. Platitudinā′rian, one who indulges in platitudes.—adj. Platitū′dinous. ”

“ If the leading nations would agree upon a fixed value for platinum, it might be used like gold as a medium of exchange.
Silver is brighter and more attractive than platinum, but is of little use in the laboratory. It has been found in recent years to be so much more abundant than gold that its value has decreased greatly as a commercial article. In our country when coined it has, like paper money, been given a value equal to gold. ”

“ The silver extracted from lead by Pattinson’s process is here seen in piles so rich, with a perfect purity of whiteness, and in scaly pyramids, a kind of flaky mound, that the observer looks on with delight, as also upon the same metal cast in ponderous ingots. Here is the gold of California, one brilliant mass weighing in value eight hundred pounds sterling, equivalent to nearly four thousand dollars. There are three masses of native Siberian, or Russian platinum, weighing respectively twenty-one, twenty-three, and twenty-five pounds, and many wrought articles of the same metal. ”

“ That's why we'll have people sleeping in solid gold beds, and enjoying silver plumbing. Platinum will have no more value than a slab of lead of the same weight. You see, Linna, when they can duplicate anything—in quantity—it includes money, stocks, bonds, and jewelry as well as radio receivers, automobiles, refrigerators, and table lamps. ”

“ It is cheaper than gold, harder and more durable than silver, infusible at all temperatures of our furnaces, and is left intact by acids and alkaline carbonates. Platinum unites all the valuable properties of gold and of porcelain, resisting the action of heat, and of almost all chemical agents.
As no mineral analysis could be made perfectly without platinum vessels, had we not possessed this metal, the composition of minerals would have yet remained unknown; without cork and caoutchouc we should have required the costly aid of the mechanician at every step. ”

“ Many ships visiting us have nothing we need or can use. For such, all services are free—or rather, are paid by the city. Our currency is based upon platinum, but gold, silver, and copper are valuable. Certain jewels, also...."
"That's far enough. We will pay our way—we have plenty of metal. What are your ratios of value for the four metals here on Hodell?"
"Today's quotations are...." He glanced at a screen, and his fingers flashed over the keys of a computer beside his chair. "One weight of platinum is equal in value to seven point three four six...." ”

“ If the platinum amounts to one fourth of the gold, we must add to the alloy at least 3 times its weight of fine silver, laminate it very thin, anneal somewhat strongly, boil it half an hour in the first aquafortis, and at least a quarter of an hour in the second, in order that the acid may dissolve the whole of the platinum. ”

“ This leads to the question, Whence the gold and platinum to be found upon the surface of the earth? These two heavy metals are only found in places where volcanic rocks have penetrated through earlier formations, and the granite has split up. Platinum, only found in excess in the Ural Mountains, is obtained from rocks that have come up from below; gold is found only in quartz-veins. ”

“ The annual production of gold is valued at nearly half a million sterling, and of platinum at approximately a quarter of a million, the output of platinum being equal to 95% of the World's total output. ”

“ All the members [Pg 285] of the platinum family, formerly ignored, were pressed into service, palladium, rhodium, osmium, iridium, and these, alloyed with gold or silver, were employed more or less satisfactorily by the dentist, chemist and electrician as substitutes for the platinum of which they had been deprived. One of these alloys, composed of 20 per cent. palladium and 80 per cent. gold, and bearing the telescoped name of "palau" (palladium au-rum) makes very acceptable crucibles for the laboratory and only costs half as much as platinum. ”

“ Platinum itself he discovered how to work on a practical scale, and he is said to have made a fortune from the secret, which, however, he disclosed in a posthumous paper (1829) ; and he was the first to detect the metals palladium (1804) and rhodium (1805) in crude platinum. ”

“ The metal, however, is unfit for coinage. When you have the two metals, gold and silver, used for coinage, you have a little confusion in the value of the two in the market; but when you have three precious metals (for you may call platinum a precious metal) worked into coin, they will be sure to run counter to one another. Indeed, the case did happen, that the price of platinum coin fixed by the Government was such, that it was worth while to purchase platinum in other countries, and make coin of it, and then take it into that country and circulate it. ”

“ In the case of tin, silver, platinum, and gold, we find some interesting properties to compensate in a great measure for their scarcity. Gold and platinum possess a remarkable power of resisting those powerful agents of chemical [Pg 202] change which destroy every thing else. They are never oxidized in the earth, and with a very few exceptions, the most powerful reagents leave them untouched, while platinum will not yield in the most powerful heat of the furnace. ”

“ An effort was made at one time by Russia, where a comparatively large amount of platinum is found, to coin this metal into money, but its continued use was not found practicable because of its changing price in the markets of the world. ”

“ But when a piece of platinum is cut into two parts, it cannot easily be reunited except by means of a chemical process, in which both parts are dissolved in an acid. Hence when platinum coin is too abundant, it cannot, like gold, be reduced into masses by melting, but must pass through an expensive process to render it useful. ”

“ All authorities state that the diamond is intimately connected with gold and platinum, but I cannot find any record which convinces me of the diamond having been found in the matrix—that is to say, in the rock in which it was originally formed—as all the formation in which the diamond has been found appear to have been the detritus of older rocks, in which it by some means or other had become imbedded during the formation of the newer one. ”

“ The pure gold, at the instant of its separation from the alloy by the action of sulphuric acid, being in a very fine powder, and lying in close contact with the platinum, under the influence of a boiling menstruum, which brightens the surfaces of the two metals, and raises their temperature to fully the 600th degree of Fahrenheit’s scale, tends to become partially soldered to the platinum, and may thus progressively thicken the bottom of the still. ”

“ A plain gold bracelet or watch, for example, may be worn with a gold and pearl ensemble. Similarly, a plain gold piece can be worn with a multicolored jewel—if the gold in the two pieces is of the same shade. Gold jewels, however, should not be worn with other metals, such as diamonds set in platinum. Silver, gold, platinum, or palladium: the same metal should characterize the ensemble.
In the Spotlight
There will be occasions, in many women’s lives, when they will officially be the center of attention. ”

“ Put in a small quantity of water and turn the pan around so as to create a gentle current, when the precious metal, if there be any, can be easily detected,—the gold by its bright lustre, the platinum by its lead color, and both by their malleability. ”

“ A common monetary standard will be established, with the consent of the various governments, by which industrial transactions will be greatly facilitated. Three spheres made respectively of gold, silver, and platinum, and each430 weighing fifty grammes, would differ sufficiently in value for the purpose. The sphere should have a small flattened base, and on the great circle parallel to it the Positivist motto would be inscribed. ”

“ The youngster was saying something about platinum to some of the other young lads, who, though they may have been well up in Euclid, and in fortifications, and could give you back accurately all that they had learned about 'momentum, velocity, and the square of distances whether inverse or not,' were not quite so well up in physics or chemical analysis. In reply to one of these young gentlemen who had been asking questions about platinum, Arnold stated that it was an elementary substance, adding that it was one of the sixty-three such substances. ”

“ Platinum is largely used for the manufacture of chemical apparatus, incandescent lamps, thermo-couples; in the manufacture of sulphuric acid by the contact process, in photography, and in jewelry. The price of the metal has risen considerably, not so much on account of the restricted supply, but chiefly because the sources of supply have passed into the hands of a few individuals The following data show the fluctuations in the average price of platinum ingot per ounce Troy:—
Platinum may be extracted from its ore by both wet and dry processes. ”

“ In finely pulverised platinum, and even in spongy platinum, we therefore possess a perpetuum mobile—a mechanism like a watch which runs out and winds itself up—a force which is never exhausted—competent to produce effects of the most powerful kind, and self-renewed ad infinitum. ”

“ Besides the above cast-iron pots, destined to dissolve only the coarse cupreous silver, containing a few grains of gold per pound, there are, in the centre of the apartment, at the right-hand side of the chimney, 6 alembics of platinum, in which the rich alloys of gold and silver are treated in the process of refining gold. ”

“ It is an easy process to drill holes, which can be concealed by hammering, while in some cases the coin has been sawn in two, and the interior gold removed, the outside surfaces being soldered together, while platinum is put in the midst to maintain the weight. ”

“ Our greatest consumers of platinum are the electricians, particularly the incandescent light companies. I supply the platinum wire for both the Edison and the Maxim companies, and the quantity they require so constantly increases that the demand threatens to exceed the supply of the metal. Sheets of platinum are bought by chemists, who have them converted into crucibles and other forms. ”

“ The colour of the platinum film is of a neutral greyish black, and it often shows at the same time a faint iridescence. Iron or steel which has been inlaid with gold or silver, forming what is known as damascene work, is greatly improved by platinising. Neither the gold nor the silver are in the least degree affected, and they will be found to afford a better contrast with the colour of the platinised than with that of the original iron. ”

“ We are unfortunately not sufficiently versed in these mysteries to know the "latest accounts;" but from the reputed effects of platinum and other metals, we should not be surprised to hear that a person well mesmerised would be found very clairvoyant of gold. We are not aware of the achievements necessary to arrive at the exalted position of "a Professor;" ”