MonoMonday "Royal: Anything Platinum, 70 or Regal"

I’ve chosen the “anything platinum” suggestion from our MM host, Pinkhairedlady, for my MonoMonday blip today: she wants something with reference to royalty and (of course) to our Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

As I often do, I’ve gone a bit zany with my choice of subject: this is my attempt to photograph the catalytic converter on my car. In true blipping tradition, I had to resort to devious tactics to get my shot. The converter is best seen from underneath the car, but my old axle stands and ramps (which I used to use about 40 years ago to raise up the MGB which I had then, in order to work on it) rusted away many moons ago; there’s no way I’ll crawl under a car using just a jack – and there isn’t room for me to get far under the car without raising it. So I had to reach under with a torch and a little vanity mirror, and point my camera at the mirror. Even then I couldn’t get the whole converter in – but it’s the rather bulbous thing seen in the mirror, bolted to the exhaust pipe.

The non-technically-minded may now ask what a catalytic converter has to do with platinum. Well, the catalyst in these is platinum. It functions as a catalyst to speed up the chemical reaction that converts pollutants in the exhaust gases (carbon monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides) into less harmful gases. It works well as it’s resistant to poisoning: when other materials are used in catalytic converters, they can be poisoned by the pollutants in the exhaust gas. It’s also able to withstand the high temperatures that are produced by the car’s engine. (Note: The platinum catalyst can be poisoned by lead - this is one of the reasons for the switch many years ago to unleaded petrol, the other reason being, of course, that lead in exhaust fumes is detrimental to health.)

This blip can also be fiddled to represent "70" as catalytic converters were first introduced to mainstream motor cars in the USA in 1975 (ie the middle of the 70s). A genuinely royal connection is tricker to make, but 1975 was 2 years before the Queen's Silver Jubilee - I'm getting desperate now!

The average platinum content in a converter is 3-6 grams – not much but spread thinly it does the trick. And even that much is quite valuable – hence the temptation to the light-fingered community to steal catalytic converters from cars.