Three hundred years ago the Spaniards in their South American possessions found placer gold, which was accompanied by grains of a hitherto unknown white metal. When washing and cleaning the white placer grains with difficulty separated from the grains of gold, as were about equal by the weight of gold. But here there were crooks, which, finding out that platinum is easily and securely connects with gold. Coins were minted from an alloy of these metals. When the news about coin tricks came to the Spanish king's, he had completely got rid of the platinum. In 1735, by royal order, platinum was solemnly thrown into the sea, as well as in river. Then the Spaniards sent to the bottom of 3 to 7 tons of platinum of about 26-60 million dollars. Nowadays, people have repeatedly tried to remove the submerged metal, but the efforts have not been successful: the water and sediment securely hid platinum. Royal same order was canceled after forty years, when Madrid authorities ordered the delivery of platinum in Spain, to falsify the gold and silver coins. Then a white metal has gained some value and pirates paid the attention on it. 3-7 tons of platinum were delivered until 1820 in Europe. Here it met with the alchemists, who saw gold unquestionably the hardest metal on earth. But platinum, having an unprecedented density - 21.5 grams per cubic centimeter, was heavier than gold. This went against the tenets of alchemical, and therefore platinum was declared the devil incarnate, no matter what unusable and even harmful metal. People find a use of platinum for a long time, although the ancient Aztecs were able to cultivate and polish to a shine it, getting the mirror. According to one version, the Aztecs placed platinum particles on a gold disc and heated it with charcoal. Gold, melted, merged with the platinum, and when it cooled, it was manufactured with a hammer, and then they again heated disk. Then, the surface of platinum was polished to a mirror reflection. Scientists and specialists were pejoratively labeled platinum white, rotten, gold frog, not finding up to the XVIII century the methods of its manufacturing and evaluated white metal half the price of silver. Yet there were inquisitive researchers who were to melt platinum at relatively low temperatures with the addition of arsenic. Parisian jeweler Marc Etienne Janet in 1790 took advantage of this discovery and first use of platinum for jewelry.
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