Pride Of Place Is Given To Platinum

Southland Times, Issue 23840, 10 June 1939, Page 16

Pride Of Place Is Given To Platinum

Even a suitor’s heart of gold does not carry much weight unless his declaration of undying affection is accompanied by a platinum engagement ring; and most of the brides who promise to love and obey for ever will, with very few exceptions, be bound by a band of the world’s smoothest, most enduring, and precious metal—appropriately symbolic qualities, says a writer in the Women’s Supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald. Popularity of platinum has increased greatly over the past few years, and, according to leading Sydney jewellers, the demand for a shining yellow ring “like the one worn by mother” is negligible. Only a few choose gold “for sentiment’s sake.” So far as the jeweller is concerned, however, platinum possesses many valuable qualities. Chief of these is its strength—less than tissue-paper thickness being sufficient setting for precious stones. These wondrous necklaces and pendants, for example, in which a spider-web of unobtrusive metal holds in place constellations of diamonds, making their fire blaze and flash with increased brilliance, would be merely a craftsman’s dream without a platinum base of reality. USEFUL AND ORNAMENTAL The woman who goes to dinners, balls and other social functions, her fingers sparkling with diamonds, her breast bright with rubies and sapphires, and her throat encircled with pearls, realizes perhaps the big part platinum plays in her adornment. But it is unlikely she knows the many humbler but more essential services performed for her by the most precious of all metals. Telephone, radio, electric iron, hairwaving apparatus, vacuum-cleaner, and even light itself, depend on the presence of small quantities of platinum in certain parts of the equipment. It is fitting that a precious metal which plays such an important part in romance should, itself, have a romantic history. The story, however, begins in comparatively recent times. Neither the enlightened ancients nor the alchemists of the dark ages knew about platinum, and Europe had to wait for the first definite news of it until 1748, when Don Antonio de Ulloa, a Spanish naval officer, published an account of his travels through South America in 1735 with a French astronomical mission. It had, however, been discovered earlier by Spanish gold-seekers in the country, but they were impressed only by its great weight, and covered it with a thin layer of gold and sold it as the then more precious metal. To prevent such fraud it was decreed that all platinum should be thrown into the sea. Then, in 1788, the Spanish Government went into the counterfeiting business on its own account, paying' 8/a pound for platinum to mix with gold. - PRECIOUS BULLETS Russian huntsmen, however, had been using platinum to make bullets, and in 1819 huge deposits were found in the Mai Mountains. Before the war 90 per cent, of the world’s supply came from

this quarter. Russia actually had a platinum coinage from 1828 to 1845, when it was discontinued owing to fluctuation of price and difficulties of manufacture.

From 8/6 an ounce in 1869, the price of platinum rose steadily to 85/- in 1908, and to £2O in 1914, as compared with £4/5/- for gold. During the war it reached £4O because of the supply from the Urals being closed and to the big quantity used in the manufacture of munitions. This led to the discovery of substitutes for scientific and commercial purposes, and since 1927 the value of platinum has slumped until it is now worth only a few shillings more than gold.