Show it ry M 1 r 41 r f l' l f fi 0 c 1 a 1 s 4 1 b 11 t 4 f iv I i F ROMANCE 0 PLATINUM Metal More Precious Than Either Silver or Gold in I- I V Greater Favor Than J JEver k Ever for Wedding II ij f for o Modern Moderna a i 4 r industrial Needs and the Supply Not j jat at All Up to the Demand 1 By Nell Ray Clarke Bj L SMITH Sl and Tommy Jones are doing deep down into the old sock for platinum wedding rings for their Juno June brIdes Dame Damo Fashion has decreed that platInum plat plat- mum has supplanted has supplanted gold Rings are arc so t today day that you have to look twice t Ito to see seo whether a girl is married married- the tho wedding band Is like the tho tie tic that binds very thin and ea ily dissolved dissolved- but the tho young groom must dig heavily into his savings saving's to buy even this narrow platinum ring for the only girl in inthe the world for this years year's supply of platinum is particularly low The total production of crude platinum In the United States in 1925 was only ounces just enough to make 2744 weddIng rIngs The production of this the noblest of all the precious metals in the United States has always been negligible the major portion of our supply being imported from Russia Colombia and th the Union of South Africa Platinum refiners in this country purchased purchased pur- pur chased only troy ounces of crude platinum from domestic and foreign Sources sources during 1925 only enough for wedding rings if it all had been used for that purpose Since more than thana a million marriages take place in this country every year and not even a third of the platinum is made into jewelry not to mention rings few brides will really be able to boast a band of the brilliant white metal It is a good thing that thousands of brides are arc quite as happy and well satisfied satisfied satis- satis fied with bands of gold however for forth th there te is a question in inthe the minds of many industrial engineers as to whether the metal should be used at all for ornamental orna orna- mental purposes rE E Gov Government nl economist N O who has I been making a study of of the worlds world's I platinum supply growl d when he was consulted on the subject that there is no appreciable danger from the thet t diminishing supply of platinum unless f the demand made on it by you women outgrows the present volume It is a pity that you are taking one of the finest of the tho industrial metals for jewelry r was his contemptuous comment But even ven if platinum could not be used for forthe the last symbol of womans woman's history as mans man's chattel wedding rings of some sort lort or other would hardly be dispensed r Of with wit for too much sentiment and r romance both in fact and fiction have been associated with its use for even the c callous flapper of today to cast aside this r J J token of her submission and confidence fIt It was used among the Assyrians Greeks and other ther ancients to tose se seal l an an order and bind a bargain In Egypt the husband placed a ring on his wife's fing finger r to show that he her with his property The precious metal of Which the wedding wed wed- ding ing ring is made whether of gold or oJ of platinum signified the purity of the l love the continuous circle indicates the endlessness of the love the singleness stands for the unity of the couple exactness of fit for the h harmony of the tempers of the husband and wife ite and the price the husband pays for it takes the place of the ancient purchase money which the groom paid for his bride In fact in Christian countries tod today y ya a woman can scarcely be properly married mar mar- Tied ried without a ring of some sort but how how howlong long the custom will vill obtaIn can hardly be told The first wedding ring was hammered out by Tubal C Cain in so history says for forthe the wedding of a man named Pro Pro- The old artificer made the ring of iron and adamant as he believed these two substances signified lastingness lasting lasting- n ness ss and perfect concord respectively The early Romans used ringS ring made of iron and the English when they could afford nothing better slipped the ring of th the church key over the finger of the bride temporarily or of course Even yet in some parts of Ireland the foresighted f 1 country merchants keep a few rings 11 y s m P which they rent for a few days to the impecunious bridegrooms who cannot afford to buy rings for keeps Some accommodating clergymen in olden times used to keep brass curtain rings in their pockets which they supplied supplied sup sup- plied to the improvident groom in case of emergency I FROM ROM such early makeshifts ts rings evolved into quite heavy and mom mo- mo m affairs The French invention called a ring was constructed so 80 that it could become one ring or sev- sev eral The portions were given to the bride the groom and possibly to w witnesses wit wit- t- t nesses at the espousal and were united into the completed ring at the wedding Some of them were elaborately engraved with a rhyme which was only complete when the several portions were united One English Bishop had engraved on the ring he gave his fourth wIfe If I survive Ill I'll make them five Another English Bishop had his wife's ring engraved with the Latin words meaning God Goil make me prolific obedient and sedulous It was well that the good Bishop lived many years ago as he probably would have had a hard time wishing that ring on any modern girl Other rhymes which found favor before the popularity of the modern divorce court were Let last Jast My heart and I until I die and I desire not to change When independent Miss America lets her Prince Charming push that small white band on her fourth finger she little knows why during the ages women have been permitting permitting permit permit- ting men mien to put the mark of their DOS nos- sL i session on that par par- W pJ finger The J my- my partIcular finger a as s swell w well ll as the ring has its significance The left hand is not used as much as the rig right h t and the fourth finger being the we weakest kest finger signifies the wife's dependence Furthermore from the times of the ear early I Y Egyptians even up to fairly recent recent re- re cent times it was thought that the third finger of the left hand was tH di- di con connected n e- e et t d with the heart by bya a vein called the vein of love That finger called the life finger was believed to resist disease longest and the alchemists alchemists al- al chemists s stirred t i r red their potions with it because it was supposed to give the quickest warning of poison F Even ven today ignorant t mountain people in Virginia and Tennessee wear a special kind of ring on the third finger to drive away rheumatism No Noone one would Shave have thought of having havinga a wedding ring of platinum back or more years ago however In those days it was considered an inferior metal to gold and even to silver The vogue of the platinum wedding ring and of platinum jewelry is comparatively modern mod mod- ern but since its introduction for this purpose within thin the last twenty five years its use has increased so enormously enormously enor- enor that the question of its being a menace to the industrial and chemical uses of the metal has hns been widely discussed discussed dis- dis cussed and even during the World War Warthe Warthe the supply of platinum to the jewelry trade was materially curtailed because the metal was in urgent demand for making munitions Today it is one of the most valuable of the precious metals S Jewelers say that the use J c II c a. a 4 P t F t The demand j r t f for r platinum for J jewelry ewe I ry h has as made serious i l' l inroads the the 1 on supply needed for utilitarian s purposes s such as dentistry Sand S- S tel hones and switchboards telegraphic instruments ments X-r X ray X-ray y tubes o delicate weights airplanes T magnetos and spark pl gs The supply is limited I and the steadily 5 increasing demand for the rare metal is ad advancing its neg price t a I. I jn j- j ti n r s j S w MN S One of the sources of platinum is the sand of the Colombia rivers and frequently its value is greatly in excess of the gold brought up b by Y dredges oper operating ting on the Rio Condoto for setting stones is not a fad but that the white metal adds materially to the beauty of precious stones especially of the diamond One Orie jeweler in discussing the difference in the use of platinum and gold for jewelry called attention to a a. a procession of white clad nurses walking down the street The difference in the use of platinum and gold is just as great as the difference you would observe observe ob- ob serve if ie those nurses were all dressed in yellow he asserted At any rate about third one of the worlds world's output of platinum is now going into jewelry B BUT UT today it is the chemist and the industrial engineer who resent Miladys Milady's preference for platinum settings settings set set- tings for her jewels They tell us that platinum is necessary as a in inthe inthe the production of concentrated sulphuric acid which is imperative in many of our manufacturing processes Platinum is necessary for airplane and telephone and telegraph instrument switch parts boards relays and sending and receiving receiving ing apparatus probably constituting the I t L greatest single single demand on platinum alloys The metal is essential in dentistry for plates bridges crown work foil and pins and it is necessary in the manufacture manufacture manu manu- facture of nitric acid from ammonia Pure platinum utensils are required in chemical laboratories Platinum crucibles crucibles cru- cru dishes tongs t triangles and spatulas are required in certain kinds of operations where even gold gold alloys nickel or any other known substance substance sub sub- stance could not be used The use of platinum crucibles in the analysis of rocks is largely responsible for the major portion of our knowledge of the composition of the earths earth's crust Comparative om arav le Table of o Values is one of the most valuable of metals and the pLATINUM I following table computed on the basis of a cubic centimeter cubi cubic inch with the weight of the various substances used for comparison given in grains shows the relative values Platinum Nickel Iridium eo Tin Tin eo 01 Gold 1283 Copper Silver Zinc eo Mercury Mercury eo Lead Lead Tungsten Iron The demand for platinum for jewelry has of course greatly increased its price l Platinum is responsible for the penetrating penetrating pene- pene rays produced by the better class of ofra ray C-ray ra tubes it furnishes contact points in magnetos used in internal internal- combustion engines and some of it goes into spark plugs Its nature makes it constant in weight and therefore it is coming to be used as the standard metal for weights and measures measures meas- meas ures where great accuracy is needed the standard meter which is in theory the standard of the metric system now universally used in chemical and physical physical cal work kept in Paris is composed of an alloy containing 90 per cent platinum and 10 per cent iridium and was chosen t l S R Platinum was once classified among the baser metals During the reign of Isabella II of Spain counterfeit doubloons were made of platinum and gilded to have the theJa appearance of gold The gold doubloon was worth and the counterfeit Now the counterfeit would be worth 42 or more than five times the one made of gold only after exhaustive trials of various materials had been made The great gr usefulness of platinum of-platinum platinum in our daily lives is based ch chiefly efi o oth on th three e of its properties its resistance to corrosion corrosion corro- corro corro- corro sion its malleability malleability-it can be beaten or rolled out into thin sheets and its ts d it ductility can be drawn out in very fine threads The metal can be pulled out into a wire so fine that it can scarcely be seen with the naked eye one single troy ounce of f platinum making a wire about 1800 miles long A single wedding ring if it were drawn out in such a fine wire would stretch from Washington to New York or from New NewYork NewYork York to Boston Once it was despised for its occurrence with gold and silver as it was thought to render those metals less valuable It has not really been known in Europe much longer tha than years The first authentic reference to it in European literature appears in a book by Julius in which he refers to a white infusible metal found in the mines of Mexico and Darien now Panama ONG before the metal was known in LONG Europe however it had been used by the prehistoric peoples of Ecuador 2000 years years' ago for making articles for their personal The oldest known platinum ornaments were were dug up in the Province of Esmeraldas in Ecuador Ecuador dor one o or two thin layers of platinum being hammered on to layers of gold Other ornaments have been found at atthe atthe the Island of Tola in the Santiago River in Ecuador and are now on ex- ex t t bib tion in th the Museum of the American Indian in New York City The first definite reference to platinum platinum num however was was made in a book describing describing de- de scribing the travels to South America in 1735 of Don Antonio de Ulloa a Spanish naval officer but a full account of the metal did not appear until thirteen thirteen thir- thir teen years later Because platinum was during those early days less valuable than gold it was used in counterfeiting The basis of the coin was made of platinum and covered over over with a thin layer of gold Th The Spanish in order to guard against this practice tried to prevent the r metal being mined and even went so far as to have large quantities of it thrown into the sea After iter the metal was discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia the Russian Government in 1828 issued three six and twelve ruble coins made of platinum platinum num which were valued at about third one that of gold The nominal worth of that platinum coinage was placed at about if the they could be gathered together today and sold for fOI forthe the metal in them they would easily bring So far as our present knowledge goes the worlds world's supply of platinum is small in comparison with the supply of other precious metals It has been estimated that the worlds world's total production from the time of the establishment of the industry in- in in Russia in 1843 to date has been only troy ounces or even less Russia has supplied about 90 per cent of that quantity Colombia about 7 per cent Borneo about 2 per percent percent cent and the tho remaining 1 per cent has been mined in the United States Australia Australia Aus- Aus and Canada combined Platinum was first discovered red in Europe in the Ronda Mountains near the so southern coast of Spain but these deposits were soon eclipsed by the great platinum beds of the Urals in Russia which were discovered in 1822 and 1825 The metal occurs as a rule in the metallic state in old river beds or alluvial deposits usually known as placers and is mined just as the alluvial gold miner pans his gold A fe few large chunks of platinum have been found however one nugget from the Urals weighing twenty five pounds nine and forty five one hundredths and another another an- an other from Colombia weighing one and three quarter pounds P pRIOR to the World War Russia was the chief source of the worlds world's supply supply sup sup- ply and that country is fast beginning to take first place again though only ounces were produced in 1923 Ia latest est figures available There are said to be five miles of platinum in a bed feet wide along the Lubra River in the the Urals which will sooner or lat later r be made available available avail avail- able for exportation During that same year 1923 the mines of Colombia which were stimulated to production during the W World War produced about ounces The deposits lie along the |