• I
Take a Victrola
on your camping trip
A Victrola is looked upon as a regular part of
a camping outfit nowadays.
It is always sure of a rousing welcome.
Its delightful music is one of the real joys of
camp life.
Whether you are gc'vg camping or not, come in and get acquainted
with the Victrola. We’ } £ adly play any music you wish to hear.
Victrolas $15 to $150. Victors $10 to $100. Xerms to suit your
: convenience, > t* ', >
T- - I Lr- Vj * _
Northern Drug Co.
CORDOVA
WALL PAPER
>
New Patterns in Stock
_ \
■ .
PHONES 11 and 75
Carter & Bogart
jj IH no regrets if you let P Work Called j
jj ^ us do this work for p r »
B || you. Every piece will p I Of 311U
■ f| be returned to you p n I • i
jj H snowy white and fault- p LJ6IIV6P6CI
jj || lessly ironed. We are p . B
jj || sure our work will p ______ jj
j delight you. p 11 p
j Modern Laundry j
F. A. Jones, Proprietor
1 First Avenue Below Alaskan Hotel 1
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4
PLATINUM IS
WASHINGTON, June 26.—New
chapters in the romance of platinum,
once thrown away as waste, but now
the most sought-after metal in the
world, have been written since the
war began. Nations are fighting for
it. Adventurers are risking their
lives to obtain it. Women spies and
diplomatic agents are playing the
game of international intrigue to con
trol even an ounce of the “noble
metal,-’ as it is known to geologists,
so valuable has it become _and so nec
essary to the prosecution of the world
war
The United States government re
cently took a hand in the game by
commandeering all unworked plati
num in this country, setting therefor
a price of $105 an ounce, as compared
with $22.85 ten years ago. Even this
action, however, has not obtained suf
ficient of the metal for war purposes.
Officials who failed to heed the warn
ings or platinum experts at the be.
ginning of the war are wondering how
they can retrieve their .error in not
vigorously meeting the national neces
sity by using every legitimate means
to obtain platinum. For the total
amount of known platinum through
out the world is only 4,000,000 ounces,
of which about one.fourth is in the
United States. Much of that is vir
tually irreclaimable through use in
dental work and personal jewelry, and
the output, since the Russian debacle,
has fallen to a fraction of what it
was in time of peace.
It is the last reason which is giving
officials so much concern. Russia
has been the source of most of the
world’s platinum, and in 1913 was
credited with a production of 250,000
troy ounces; Columbia with 15,000;
New South Wales and Tasmania,
1,275; United States (California and
Oregon being almost the only pro
ducing states), only 488; Borneo &-:d
Sumatra, 200, and Canada, 50.
The German invasion of Russia gave
the enemy the opportunity of replen
ishing his stocks of platinum, to the
detriment of the allies. Mining in
the country, and the world looks to
Columbia for platinum. Suggestions
for a government monopoly of plati
num have beert advanced in the Co
lumbian congress. Whatever action Is
taken, the fortunes of war will mean
wealth for the southern republic.
One of the most spectacular feats
of the war was the concentration of
20,000 ounces of platinum in Russia
by a young American mining engineer
attached to the embassy there, who
recognized the importance of obtain
ing the metal. Each precious brick,
wrapped in a leather cover, was
brought half-way across the world to
the United States and turned over to
the government for use in the manu
facture of sulphuric acid, a constitu
ent of explosives, for the manufacture
of contact points in electrical appar
atus and other uses necessary to war.
An interesting history of platinum is
given by the Latin-Ameriean division
of the bureau of foreign and domestic
uuimnerce.
Platinum was discov?:ed in what is
now Columbia in 1735 by a Spaniard
named Don Antonio de Ullot, who ac
companied a French scientific expe
dition, and his account of it was the
first information regarding the metal
to be brought to the attention of
Europeans. Its resistability to acids
and the difficulty of working it were
remarked upon, but it was not con
sidered to be nearly as precious as
gold, and was used at times by coun
terfeiters as a basis for coins. It was
not until the middle of the nineteenth
century that the demand for plati
num for use in chemical laboratories
and for electrical uses brought its
value up to the point where it ranked
as one of the most precious metals.
In the placer mining of gold in Co
lumbia it was formerly thrown away
as waste, and when the rise in price
made it more valuable than gold the
ground on which the waste had been
thrown became in its turn a field for
mining operations, and even the
strees of the principal center of gold
refining in Columbia, Qulbdo, were
torn up and the soil washed for par
ticles of the new treasure. One man
tore down his store in order to get
at the ground beneath, and found so
much platinum that he was enabled
to rebuild and make an extra |4,000
for his trouble.
Platinum is recovered principally
from the beds of streams, the parti
cles having been deposited there
through erosion of large rocks, classL
ftftljrWtiWM- n “tertiary conglom
erate*' Tne platinum grains are
found with gold, the proportion vary
ing from 5 to 50 per cent of platinum.
The two metals are recovered by
washing the sand and gravel of
streams.
The marked rise in the price of
platinum in the last two or three
years has considerably stimulated
mining activities in Columbia, espe
cially on the part of the native
miners.
Present imports of Columbian plati
num by the United States represent
almost the total visible exports ol
that country.
-4
The Kachemack Bay Fisheries, inc.
is preparing to Install a saltery near
Seldovia, Alaska.
Aunty
Keating’s
‘W
S>ljop
^Hn
We Are Getting New Shipments of Up-to
Date Merchandise on Every Boat
Shoes - Oxfords - Pumps
Silk Sweaters -Fibre Sweaters
Wool Sweaters
I SILK UNDERWEAR SILK KIMONOS
SILK PULMANS PETTICOATS
WAISTS VEILS
«
GAGE and FISKE
MILLINERY
THRIFT STAMPS
With Every $5.00 Purchase
Invest vour „ ,
money with -- ?, P 7T
p: n.
......mStommm.Merchants!
•••■* .■ - ■ ■- ----
Latest Faces in Type Just Received For
Artistic Job Printing
*
V
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