“A distinguishing characteristic of platinum is its extreme ductility.  A wire can be made from it finer than from any other metal.  I have a sample in my pocket, the gauge of which is only one two-thousandth of an inch, and it is practicable to make it thinner.  It has even been affirmed that platinum wire has been made so fine as to be invisible to the naked eye, but that I do not state as of my own knowledge.  This wire my son made.”

Mr. Baker exhibited the sample spoken of.  It looked like a tress of silky hair, and had it not been shown upon a piece of black paper could hardly have been seen.  He went on: 

“The draw plates, by means of which these fine wires are made, are sapphires and rubies.  You may fancy for yourselves how extremely delicate must be the work of making holes of such exceeding smallness to accurate gauge, too, in those very hard stones.  I get all my draw plates from an old Swiss lady in New York, who makes them herself to order.  But, delicate as is the work of boring the holes, there is something still more delicate in the processes that produce such fine wire as this.  That something is the filing of a long point on the wire to enable the poking of the end of it through the draw plate so that it can be caught by the nippers.  Imagine yourself filing a long, tapering point on the end of a wire only one eighteen-hundredths of an inch in diameter, in order to get it through a draw plate that will bring it down to one two-thousandths.  My son does that without using a magnifying glass.  I cannot say positively what uses this very thin wire is put to, but something in surgery, I believe, either for fastening together portions of bone or for operations.  A newly invented instrument has been described to me, which, if it does what has been affirmed, is one of the greatest and most wonderful discoveries of modern science.  A very thin platinum wire loop, brought to incandescence by the current from a battery—­which, though of great power, is so small that it hangs from the lapel of the operator’s coat—­is used instead of a knife for excisions and certain amputations.  It sears as it cuts, prevents the loss of blood, and is absolutely painless, which is the most astonishing thing about it.

“Our greatest consumers of platinum are the electricians, particularly the incandescent light companies.  I supply the platinum wire for both the Edison and the Maxim companies, and the quantity they require so constantly increases that the demand threatens to exceed the supply of the metal.  Sheets of platinum are bought by chemists, who have them converted into crucibles and other forms.”