xxviii Proceedings. \Febttiaiy 6th, igiz. 



It is interesting to note that one reason for the scarcity of 

 platinum in Europe during the latter half of the i8th century is 

 stated to have been the action of the Spanish Government in 

 decreeing that platinum should be thrown into the sea as its 

 only known use was to adulterate gold coinage. In 1788, 

 however, the Spanish Government, presumably to depreciate 

 the gold coinage on its own account, suspended this edict and 

 began to buy platinum in South America at the rate of 8/- 

 per lb., and within twenty years the manufacture of platinum 

 wire, foil and apparatus was established in England. 



English pottery decorated with platinum was, however, an 

 article of extensive manufacture from 1790 or thereabouts, so 

 that, I believe, this must take precedence over the other indus- 

 trial applications of the metal. Why this particular application 

 of the metal should appear so early appears to be quite simple. 

 The principal potters of that day in England, France and 

 Germany were connected with the various learned societies, and 

 the properties of this curious new substance, so refractory and 

 so resistant to solution in acids, attracted widespread attention. 

 Solutions of gold in aqua regia had been used for some time 

 as a means of producing thin films of gold on pottery ; the 

 earliest examples I have ever seen were prepared by Bottger, the 

 Alchemist, who first made true porcelain in Europe, and he 

 died in 1719. It seems natural, therefore, that a potter like 

 Josiah Wedgwood, who associated with the best scientific men 

 of the day and was an active member of the Royal Society, 

 should turn his attention to platinum. From Wedgwood's 

 correspondence it is clear that as early as 1775 he had been 

 in communication with Dr. Fothergill and others as to the 

 production of metallic deposits on pottery, and the only patent 

 he ever took out was connected with this subject. We also 

 know that between 1780 and 1790 he was endeavouring to 

 produce his famous black ware with a surface of metallic silver. 

 Sometime in 1790-91 he, or his youngest son Thomas Wedgwood 

 (the man who produced the first sun-prints on paper sensitised 



