Nowhere except in
the Urals is it found in quantity, and since it seems indispensable in
chemical and electrical appliances, the price has continually gone up.
Russia collapsed into chaos just when the war work made the heaviest
demand for platinum, so the governments had to put a stop to its use for
jewelry and photography. The "gold brick" scheme would now have to be
reversed, for gold is used as a cheaper metal to "adulterate" platinum.
All the members of the platinum family, formerly ignored, were pressed
into service, palladium, rhodium, osmium, iridium, and these, alloyed
with gold or silver, were employed more or less satisfactorily by the
dentist, chemist and electrician as substitutes for the platinum of
which they had been deprived. One of these alloys, composed of 20 per
cent. palladium and 80 per cent. gold, and bearing the telescoped name
of "palau" (palladium au-rum) makes very acceptable crucibles for the
laboratory and only costs half as much as platinum. "Rhotanium" is a
similar alloy recently introduced.
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