BRITAIN’S WAR BRIDES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 May 1942, Page 4

BRITAIN’S WAR BRIDES

GIVING UP WEDDING RINGS OF PLATINUM.

Between six and ten wedding rings of platinum will supply the electrodes for the sparking plugs of one aero engine. Britain’s war brides are therefore leaving the altar with rings made of palladium, a metal named after the planet Pallas, from Pallas Athene the Greek goddess of knowledge whose image the ancients believed brought good fortune. British jewellers like the metal because it works quite as easily as platinum. In engagement rings it holds the stones securely and with its untarnishable brilliance brings out all their fire and colour. It is indeed -proving ideal for all kinds of rings, and also, as it is about 40 per cent lighter than platinum for cigarette and vanity cases, bracelets and other articles where lightness, strength and beauty are desired. Pure palladium, like pure platinum, is too soft for .jewellery work, so it is being toughened by the addition of small quantities of rhodium and ruthenium, two even more precious metals of the platinum group. In this state it is called by the trade Kerba palladium which goes to Britain chiefly from Canada,

Kerba palladium costs £7 10s an ounce, as against £9 an ounce for jewellers’ platinum, but, as it is so much lighter, it goes further. In value it is comparable with 18-carat gold, and it is much more desirable because even in the allay state it is precious metal throughout.