Editing Platinum (section)

===European discovery===
The first European reference to platinum appears in 1557 in the writings of the [[Italy|Italian]] humanist [[Julius Caesar Scaliger]] as a description of an unknown noble metal found between [[Darién Province|Darién]] and Mexico, "which no fire nor any Spanish artifice has yet been able to liquefy".<ref name="weeks">{{cite book| title = Discovery of the Elements| url = https://archive.org/details/discoveryofeleme07edunse| url-access = registration|pages = [https://archive.org/details/discoveryofeleme07edunse/page/385 385]–407|author = Weeks, M. E.|date= 1968|edition = 7th|publisher = Journal of Chemical Education| isbn = 978-0-8486-8579-9| oclc = 23991202}}</ref> From their first encounters with platinum, the Spanish generally saw the metal as a kind of impurity in gold, and it was treated as such. It was often simply thrown away, and there was an official decree forbidding the [[adulteration]] of gold with platinum impurities.<ref name="history" />

[[File:Platinum symbol.svg|thumb|left|upright=0.4|alt=A left-pointing crescent, tangent on its right to a circle containing at its center a solid circular dot|This [[alchemical symbol]] for platinum was made by joining the [[symbols]] of [[silver]] ([[moon]]) and [[gold]] ([[sun]]).]]
[[File:Almirante Antonio de Ulloa.jpg|thumb|[[Antonio de Ulloa]] is credited in European history with the discovery of platinum.]]

In 1735, [[Antonio de Ulloa]] and [[Jorge Juan y Santacilia]] saw Native Americans mining platinum while the Spaniards were travelling through Colombia and Peru for eight years. Ulloa and Juan found mines with the whitish metal nuggets and took them home to Spain. Antonio de Ulloa returned to Spain and established the first mineralogy lab in Spain and was the first to systematically study platinum, which was in 1748. His historical account of the expedition included a description of platinum as being neither separable nor [[calcination|calcinable]]. Ulloa also anticipated the discovery of platinum mines. After publishing the report in 1748, Ulloa did not continue to investigate the new metal. In 1758, he was sent to superintend mercury mining operations in [[Huancavelica]].<ref name="weeks" />

In 1741, [[Charles Wood (ironmaster)|Charles Wood]],<ref>{{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=525bAAAAQAAJ&pg=PP7 |page = 52 |title = The literary life of William Brownrigg. To which are added an account of the coal mines near Whitehaven: And Observations on the means of preventing epidemic fevers |last1 = Dixon |first1 = Joshua |last2 = Brownrigg |first2 = William |date = 1801 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170324090058/https://books.google.com/books?id=525bAAAAQAAJ&pg=PP7 |archive-date = 24 March 2017 |df = dmy-all }}</ref><!--https://books.google.com/books?id=S1lFAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA672--> a British [[metallurgy|metallurgist]], found various samples of Colombian platinum in Jamaica, which he sent to [[William Brownrigg]] for further investigation.

In 1750, after studying the platinum sent to him by Wood, Brownrigg presented a detailed account of the metal to the [[Royal Society]], stating that he had seen no mention of it in any previous accounts of known minerals.<ref>{{cite journal |pages = 584–596 |doi = 10.1098/rstl.1749.0110 |title = Several Papers concerning a New Semi-Metal, Called Platina; Communicated to the Royal Society by Mr. Wm. Watson F. R. S |date = 1749 |last1 = Watson |first1 = Wm |last2 = Brownrigg |first2 = William |journal = Philosophical Transactions |volume = 46 |issue = 491–496 |df = dmy-all |bibcode = 1749RSPT...46..584W |s2cid = 186213277 |doi-access = free }}</ref> Brownrigg also made note of platinum's extremely high melting point and refractoriness toward [[borax]].{{clarify|reason=what is meant by "refractoriness towards borax??|date=May 2014}} Other chemists across Europe soon began studying platinum, including [[Andreas Sigismund Marggraf]],<ref>{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GWNQAAAAcAAJ | title = Versuche mit dem neuen mineralischen Körper Platina del pinto genannt | last1 = Marggraf | first1 = Andreas Sigismund | date = 1760 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170324173956/https://books.google.com/books?id=GWNQAAAAcAAJ | archive-date = 24 March 2017 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> [[Torbern Bergman]], [[Jöns Jakob Berzelius]],<!--http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=pmr-v23-i4-155-156&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CFoQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.platinummetalsreview.com%2Fpdf%2Fpmr-v23-i4-155-156.pdf&ei=FxWTT_6YOoOLswaKy7XeBA&usg=AFQjCNFn8__okV3fK4xcNSg1bQ-Nm_NZHg--> [[William Lewis (scientist)|William Lewis]],<!--http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=platina+William+Lewis&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.platinummetalsreview.com%2Fpdf%2Fpmr-v7-i2-066-069.pdf&ei=hhWTT4-YNozLsgb14LGLBA&usg=AFQjCNHCECiLbEjXypnkLTujKyMs47FANQ--> and [[Pierre Macquer]]. In 1752, [[Henrik Teofilus Scheffer|Henrik Scheffer]] published a detailed scientific description of the metal, which he referred to as "white gold", including an account of how he succeeded in fusing platinum ore with the aid of [[arsenic]]. Scheffer described platinum as being less pliable than gold, but with similar resistance to corrosion.<ref name="weeks" />