ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe list of friends and co-workers who have helped in the prepara-tion of this book is so long that space is lacking to give each theindividual thanks that he deserves. I must, however, express mygratitude to T. R. McDearman, Margaret Stockford, StanislausSkowronski, Adolph Bregman, Edward Wichers, and the late PhilipE. Browning, for especial courtesies. I wish to thank again themany authors and publishers who have granted permission for theuse of their writings, and the several business organizations that haveplaced illustrations at my disposal. In particular I wish to mentionthe frontispiece, copyrighted by the National Geographic Society,and reproduced from the National Geographic Magazine withspecial permission; and to thank Drs. Wichers and Gilchrist fortheir permission to use it here.
PALISADE, NEW JERSEY. C. M.
HOKE
January, 1940.
REFINING METAL WASTE
PREFACEThis book is based on twenty-four years of experience in teaching jewelers and others how to refine their precious metal wastes.In many cases, especially at first, the instructions were given inperson, at the jewelry factory or dental laboratory. Mostly, how-ever, the instructions were given by mail, in the form of typeddirection sheets, supplemented by replies to such questions as cameto the student's mind. These instructions were prepared to meetthe individual requirements of the user, and were adapted to thetype of jewelry he made, the size of his shop, his own backgroundof education or experience, and the kind of waste he happened tohave on hand at the moment.This book is based on these oral and written instructions, anddiffers from them mainly in that it hopes to meet, in one volume,the needs of many workers handling many different problems. Itassumes complete inexperience on the part of the reader.For many centuries—from the days of the Egyptians up to about1900 A.D.—the metals used in jewelry were gold and silver. Copperand zinc were added to cheapen and to strengthen them. Theprocesses of melting and refining were simple, well known, andadequately described in the literature. A young man wishing tolearn the art or trade could do so either through the printed word,or by apprenticing himself to some older artisan.But at about the beginning of the 20th century, platinum enteredthe fields of jewelry-making and dentistry. By the time we enteredthe first World War, it had burst like a nova into first magnitudein the jewelry firmament. Its sister metals, palladium and iridiumespecially, came with it. Immediately the problems of refining,separating, and remelting the scrap metal became problems indeed.At first, say up to about 1915, comparatively few jewelry shops inthe whole world were equipped to melt their platinum scrap, andthe task of separating the platinum from the gold scrap was equallybeyond their powers; a handful of professional refiners handled theentire output. Reasons for this were several; preoccupation with
viii PREFACEwar was only one. The habit of secrecy among many workers wasa potent reason; the institution of apprenticeship was dying out;the literature of platinum was scanty and so highly technical as todiscourage the average reader. Platinum was so valuable that inmany shops the proprietor did all the melting and refining himself such as it was and excluded all workmen from the room where heworked, thus increasing the superstitions and misinformation thatcollected around the whole subject.(A practical reason was the fact that the melting point of platinum ismuch higher than that of silver or gold; so high, in fact, that an oxygenflame is required for melting it. That is, a gold-melting furnace, usinggas or coke with compressed air, is not hot enough to melt platinum.The fuel must be combined with oxygen oxygen such as is now provided in steel cylinders in order to attain the necessary high temperature. The lack of compressed oxygen was a major factor in the non-useof platinum; its introduction at low prices was a major factor in its
popularization.)
Nor were these the only complications that beset the precious-metal worker of the early Nineteen Hundreds. New gold alloysappeared white golds and green golds which made refining moredifficult. Electroplating became commoner, adding its cyanide solu-tions to the duties of the harassed refiners. Chromium and rhodiumplating did their bit to complicate matters. Stamping laws thatinsisted upon definite percentages of metal and alloy added furtherto his legal, as well as his ethical responsibilities.Indeed it has been said, with truth, that there have been morechanges in precious metal technology during the last thirty years,than during the previous thirty centuries.Hence this book.
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
34 REFINING PRECIOUS METAL WASTES for Metal Waste
2.9K
Reads
5
Readcasts
0
Embed Views
Notes
Load more
