428 



NATURE 



[August i, 191 8 



but open to inspection, and giving publicity to their 

 methods and accounts. In the opinion of the 

 Development Commissioners the influence of these 

 farms on agriculture (always supposing them to 

 be financially successful) would be remarkable. 



The Report is comprehensive and singularly 

 opportune. Never before in our time has there 

 been so grand an opportunity for laying the 

 foundation of a noble rural civilisation. The touch 

 of sadness brought into most homes by the war 

 has done much to broaden our outlook and to level 

 old prejudices. The problem must be approached 

 in an enlightened but sympathetic spirit, looking 

 only to the welfare of our children and our chil- 

 dren's children; it can be solved, and the Report 

 before us furnishes suggestive lines on which a 

 solution can be found. E. J. Russell. 



PLATINUM. 



A FEW months. ago we noticed (vol. c, p. 486, 

 February 21) the chapter on "Plati- 

 num in 1916 " which Dr. G. F. Kunz contributed 

 to the current volume of "The Mineral Industry," 

 and now we have before us in pamphlet form the 

 illustrated article on the same subject, though 

 studied. from a somewhat different point of view, 

 which the same writer penned for the issue of 

 the Bulletin of the" Pan-American Union for 

 November, 1917. On the last .page — and, there- 

 Tore, there being no cover, the back of the 

 pamphlet — we are told that this union is an inter- 

 national organisation, which is housed at. Wash- 

 ington in a beautiful building provided by the 

 munificence of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, and 

 is maintained by the republics, twenty-one in 

 number, in both the Americas, the necessary funds 

 being provided by the several countries in propor- 

 tion to their population. .The administration is in 

 the hands of two executive officers — ^Director- 

 General and Assistant-Director — who are ap- 

 pointed by, and are responsible to, ihe Board of 

 Governors, which comprises the United States 

 Secretary of State and the diplomatic representa- 

 tives at Washington of. the other American 

 Governments, and they have the assistance of an 

 ample staff of experts in various subjects, statis- 

 ticians, translators, librarians, .clerks, etc. The 

 purpose of the union is to develop commerce 

 and to promote friendly intercourse and good 

 understanding between the several, States- — an ad- 

 mirable object that might with advantage be ex- 

 tended when opportunity occurs at the close of 

 this tragic war. 



The extraordinary rise that has during recent 

 years taken place in the value of platinum is too 

 well known to jieed emphasising, but it may not 

 be without interest to note that in 1828 so little 

 was it valued that the Russian Government com- 

 menced to coin of it 3-, 6-, and 12-rouble pieces. 

 These coins would, according to present prices, 

 be worth intrinsically about twenty times their 

 nominal value. Although minted for seventeen 

 years, ,they have become exceedingly rare, most 

 of them having long since been melted down for 

 NO. 2544, VOL. lOl] 



their value as metal. Platinum appears to have 

 been first introduced into Europe from South 

 America about the middle of the eighteenth 

 century under the name Platina (the diminutive 

 of plata, the Spanish for "silver") del Pinto, and 

 the first scientific description was published by an 

 English physicist. Sir William Watson, who 

 made the discovery that it was a new metal. 

 Although first found in Colombia, then known as 

 New Grenada, practically the whole of the world's 

 supply has come from the Urals, the principal 

 districts being Nizhne Tagilsk and Goroblago- 

 datsk, where it is found in shallow drifts with 

 pebbles of serpentine, which represent the original 

 matrix. The working of the mines has been 

 seriously interrupted by the war, and still more 

 by the disintegration of society following on the< 

 revolution in Rifssia. Consequently the discovery 

 of .platinum in workable quantities elsewhere is 

 much to be desired, so important and necessary is 

 this metal for many industrial and scientific opera-, 

 tions.. Although so rare, it appears to be widely, 

 if sparsely, distributed, occurrences having been 

 reported in British Columbia, Alaska, Oregon, and 

 California, in Borneo, New South Wales, and 

 New Zealand, and even in County Wicklow. 



Dr. Kunz describes some curious happenings at 

 Quibdo, the capital of the Choco district in 

 Colombia, in consequence of the. great rise in the 

 price of platinum. This metal was originally 

 separated as waste in the refining of gold by the 

 dry, or "blower," system, and thrown into the 

 street.. Later, when platinum became even, more 

 valuable than gold, the entire town of some 1500 

 inhabitants was turned into a mine, natives work- 

 ing , the streets for the Government, and many 

 property-owners mining under their houses. 

 It is said that one man pulled his store down and 

 recovered enough platinum to build a larger one, 

 and yet net a balance of about 800L 



The total world's supply of platinum appears 

 to be. about 120 metric tons. Its principal pur- 

 poses are in catalysing processes, for chemical, 

 physical, and electrical apparatus, and for use in 

 dentistry and jewelry. 



THE BRITISH SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTS 

 EXHIBITION. 



IT has been our privilege during the four years 

 of war to publish many articles upon scientific 

 aspects of industrial developments in various 

 directions. When supplies from enemy countries 

 were cut off, it was necessary to establish here 

 the manufacture of products and instruments for 

 which we had previously been dependent almost 

 entirely upon Germany. The sudden stoppage of 

 the supply of optical glass required for the manu- 

 facture of sighting telescopes for guns, field- 

 glasses, range-finders, and other service instru- 

 ments was for a time the cause of national anxiety, 

 but the situation was saved by the work of the 

 Institute of Chemistry and Sir Herbert Jackson, 

 which enabled manufacturers to produce the 

 glasses required, not only for optical instruments, 



