Spain. Frenchman Pierre-Francoise Chabaneau is hired by the brothers Fausto and Juan Jose Elhuyar (who had already extracted tungsten from wolframite) to extract metallic platinum from the platina ore arriving in large quantities from South America. The 10cm cube (with impurities of osmium and iridium) created by the scientist is lifted by King Charles III, who commissioned the work, who is surprised: “You’ve played a trick on me: you glued it together!” The cube weighs 23kg.
