of rendering Platinum malleable. .323 



The round cake or ingot of platinum is now sent to the Im- 

 perial Iron Works, a few vversts from St. Petersburg, where it 

 is passed between the rollers used for making bar iron, and is 

 thus rolled into thin bars; after which that which is intended 

 for coinage is taken to the mint, to be converted into ducats of 

 the value of ten roubles each. These ducats are allowed to pass 

 conventionally, any person being at liberty to refuse them ; 

 they are principally current in the southern governments of 

 the empire, being seldom to be met with near St. Petersburg. 



It is near Yekaterineburg, in the government of Perm, 

 in the Oural Mountains, but on their western face, in a dilu- 

 vial soil, that the platinum- and gold-washings are situated : the 

 principal ones belong to private individuals ; among whom the 

 heirs of the celebrated merchant DemidofF have the greatest 

 share. All the produce of the mines must, however, be sent to 

 the Imperial Academy of Mines at St. Petersburg, where it is 

 paid for at a certain fixed rate, and resold at the price of three 

 roubles per zolotneek, equal to two drams and a half avoir- 

 dupois, English. — I am not enabled to give an account of the 

 produce of the respective mines later than 1827 ; but this will, 

 liowever, show the relative proportions furnished by each : 

 The Crown mines in that year gave near 90 poods of gold. 



— — — — 2 J poods of platinum. 

 The private workings furnished about J 92 j poods of gold. 



— — — — 23^ poods of platinum. 



Pounds, English. 

 Together, about 282f poods of gold = to about 10168 

 25| poods of platinum = 917 



The discovery of these workings has had a great tendency 

 to injure the Russian iron mines; for so much capital and 

 labour has been allured to these golden mines, as very ma- 

 terially to cramp the still young Russian iron trade, which, in- 

 ilependent of these great difficulties, has other very consider- 

 able obstacles to contend against. 



The piece of platinum which I now present to the Museum 

 of the Society weighs 22 zolotneeks, or 2 oz. 11 dwt. troy, 

 English ; the largest mass in the Museum of the Imperial 

 Academy of Mines in 1830 weighed 10 pounds tS zolotneeks, 

 Russian weight : but I am given to understand that one weigh- 

 ing nearly 20 pounds has lately been discovered. 



[Notices of the original discovery of platinum in theOurais, of large masses 

 of it, of the circumstances under vvhicii it is found, and of its coinage, iiave 

 been given in Pliil. Miig. vol. Ixviii. p. .'50(!, and Phil. Mas;, and Annals, N.S. 

 vol. iii. [). 2.32; iv. pp. ;?08 and 4.'>S, and vii. p. .'>!>. — Notices of the new 

 metals allef;ed to have been discovered in it by I'rof. Osann, and of its niiner- 

 alogical characters and clieinical composition, have been given in Phil. Mag. 

 and Annals, N.S. vol. ii. p. 2U1 ; iii. p. Tl\ v. p. 'Z'6\\, and vi. p. 14(1. J — Eurr. 



2T2 XLIV. On 



