Word: platinum
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Shaffer had learned virtually everything she knew about the flute from Kincaid. Shortly before his death in 1967 at the age of 71, he had handed down his extraordinary platinum flute to her. She was not just the queen of the flute, but one of the world's two or three finest concert flutists, male or female. In 1971, Shaffer and Pianist Hephzibah Menuhin gave the world premiere of the new work at a benefit for Philadelphia's Settlement Music School, with Copland in attendance. Last week in New York, Shaffer recorded the work for Columbia Records, this...
Besides stamina, the hallmark of the Shaffer style is a big, crisply colored tone that can penetrate the thickest orchestral texture. Her Kincaid platinum instrument not only sounds like a veritable Heldenflöte; it actually is one. It weighs 20 oz., compared with 15 oz. for the average silver model. Shaffer psychs herself into certain musical moods, thinking of bright white lights for staccato passages, for instance, or of the setting sun when she has to change from fortissimo to pianissimo. "As the sun drops lower," she explains, "the heat may lessen but the colors become more intense. That...
Speaking to a meeting of the American Petroleum Institute, G.M. President Edward Cole said that on some experimental cars equipped with platinum-based catalytic converters, which reduce the pollutants spewed out in untreated exhaust by 90% or more, G.M. has been "able to meet emission levels for 1975 and 1976." While he insisted that G.M.'s prototypes are still a long way from being mass-producible equipment, Cole announced that the company has already begun to order some tooling, which suggests that officials feel the remaining bugs can be shaken out. G.M. has also arranged...
Having tipped G.M.'s hand, Cole proceeded to set a high ante for the other players. Since lead and two other elements used in most U.S. gasoline render platinum useless as an exhaust purifier, Cole said that they will have to be drastically reduced in fuel used by cars built after 1974. That, he warned, will have a "large impact" on the petroleum industry. As for the Government, said Cole, it may well have to compromise on its requirement that converters last 50,000 miles without maintenance. The farthest that G.M.'s prototypes have gone without trouble...
Last month platinum futures reached historic highs in the commodities market, putting purchases scheduled for this fall at $161 per oz. Then a Bell Laboratories report suggesting that nonplatinum catalysts are close at hand pushed prices down. Bell's research was hotly disputed by Engelhard, and the market has lately been gyrating from day to day; last week's closing price was $151. Until it has been decided in the labs, probably by the end of this year, plenty of speculators are betting that the golden age of platinum is not far away...