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Show uu Platinum, Iridium And Palladium Becoming Scarce DENVER, Colo., OcL 22 Platinum jewelry like the extra lump of sugar in your coffee and the extra ounce of white flour In your rolls, promises to be non-existent within a very short time. War demands for platinum, iridium and Palladium havo become 30 keen the Avar industries board decided a little Hoovcrizing in their use might meet the situation, and the resultant congressional act controlling UielFuse became effective October 1st The bill prohibits possession of stores of any of these metals except by firms or persons holding lincense. , The bill places the holding of quanti-tics quanti-tics of the metal on a par with wartime war-time ownership of explosives, and . makes the bureau of mines responsible for enforcement of the statute. Manufacturing jewelers, dentists, directors of laboratories and chemical engineers are among those keenlv in-terested in-terested in the provisions of the, measure. meas-ure. Any duly authorized licensing ' agent under the explosive act can ac cept applications for licenses to hold stores of the metals, but actual la-suing- of the License is done by the 1 war industries board. By means ot these licenses and data gathered as they are issued, the board will acquire , an inventory of the amount of them held in this country. ! The new law prohibits the use of ' the three metals in the manufacture j or repair of ornaments or Jewelrv and places sharp limitations on their uk in other lines not associated with war i work. A seriousness of the "platinum metals" met-als" situation lies in the fact that the J output has decreased while war-time demands have increased. Platinum Is ' used principally in chemical industry. J iridium in electrical work and pallid ium in dentistry, the latter to release platinum for chemical work. Platinum Plati-num is essential in" the manufacture of sulphuric acid and is used in certain cer-tain nitric acid processes. Another important war requirement is that platinum compounds as contact points for gasoline engines. |