THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



ANNALS OF PHILOSOPHY. 



[NEW SERIES.] 



MAY 1832. 



XLIII. An Account of the Russian Method of rendering Platinum 

 malleable. By W. Marshall, Esq. F.G.S. M. W.S. S^-c* 



COME apology may possibly be required from me, upon 

 ^ laying before the meeting a short account of the process, 

 used in the Imperial Academy of Mines at St. Petersburg, for 

 rendering platinum malleable. I am induced to make this 

 communication, because I consider that the curious method 

 recommended by Dr. Wollaston for the reduction of this ore, 

 by which its application to scientific and oeconomical purposes 

 has been so much extended, is not so easily manageable in 

 other hands ; and also because the method, as practised in the 

 Russian Mining Academy, differs in many respects from the 

 one used by himf. This difference arises partly from employ- 

 ing other mechanical means than those he advises, by which 

 the process is much shortened ; and partly by not using such 

 extreme nicety in the reduction and refining of the ore. Much 

 experience upon a large scale has proved that the method 

 which I am about to describe produces the metal in a suffi- 

 ciently pure state for practical purposes. — The ore is first dis- 

 solved in aqua regia, in a retort with a recipient attached to 

 it, with the aid of heat gradually applied : the duration of 

 this digestion is indefinite, being regulated according to the 

 greater or less quantity of metal under operation, and of aqua 

 regia employed in its digestion ; to the size and state of cohe- 

 sion of the particles of platinum; and to the degree of tem- 

 perature and the method of applying it. This part of the pro- 

 cess is carried on in a room detached from the laboratory, 

 and inclosed with glass doors ; for although by the simple 

 contrivance of inserting a bent tube into the neck of the retort, 



• Read before the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, February 7, 1832; 

 and coiniiumicated by the Council. 



+ Dr.Wollaston's Bakcrian Lecture on his Method of rendering Platinum 

 malleable, will be found in Phil. Mag. and Annals, N.S. vol. vi. p. 1. — Edit. 



N.S. Vol. 11. No. 65. May 1832. 2 T and 



