Gold
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Gold. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a soft, lustrous, yellow metal . It may be beaten into sheets so thin that a fourth of a million are required to make an inch in thickness. Gold is 13.3 times as heavy as water. It melts at 1200 deg. F., a greater degree of heat than is required to melt copper. Gold is widely distributed. There is two cents worth in every ton of sea water. It is found in silver and copper ores, in quartz veins, and in placer mines. The latter are not really mines, but gravel beds containing gold dust washed down by mountain torrents from crumbling gold-bearing ledges. Goldbearing quartz and ores are first crushed to powder in stamp mills. The result is washed with a current of water to carry away the lighter particles, the remainder is passed over mercury which has a strong liking for gold and seizes upon it, forming an amalgam. Gold-bearing gravel is washed in the same way, or it may be rocked to and fro in a pan. Sometimes the gold grains are large enough to be taken from the bottom of the pan in the form of gold dust, but are usually secured by treatment with mercury. Hydraulic miners wash away banks and hillsides by directing streams of water upon the gravel through large hose pipes. The muddy water is caused to run away down the valley through a wooden sluice or trough to the bottom of which slats or cleats are nailed crosswise. Each cleat holds back a little pool of mercury into which the heavy grains of gold roll and are held in an amalgam. The amalgam of gold and mercury is heated in a retort. The mercury passes over and is caught for use again. The gold is left free and may be cast in the form of an ingot or bar. Of late, due to want of water in many localities, a new method based on the fanning mill has been tried. Gold dust is heavy, and is left behind when other forms of dust and gravel are carried on by a blast of air. Small quantities of gold are found in the Appalachian mountains. The Carolinas and Georgia have sixty or seventy gold mines and have produced as high as $1,000,000 worth of gold in a year. The Mother Lode of California is a vein of white, gold-bearing quartz that stands above the surface like a wall, and runs parallel to the main axis of the Sierras for eighty miles. California gold was discovered in 1848 by men engaged in digging a mill race. Thousands of men lost fortunes and thousands made fortunes in placer mining . The Comstock Lode of Nevada, primarily a silver vein, has yielded $140,000,000 of gold. All the mountain states of the West are gold-producing. The gold produced by various states in 1907 was: Arizona $2,664,000 California 16,583,000 Colorado 20,897,000 Georgia 64,800 Idaho 1,225,000 Montana 3,472,000 Nevada 15,411,000 New Mexico 330,000 North Carolina 79,000 Oregon 122,000 South Carolina 58,000 South Dakota 4,138,000 Utah 5,121,000 Washington 262,000 Wyoming 9,400 Alaska 18,489,000 The wonderful gold fields of the Yukon Valley assure the United States the lead in gold production for some time to come. Second in importance are the gold fields of Australia. The gold of the Altai, the Ural, and the Caucasus mountains gave Russia first place for centuries until eclipsed by California and Australia. South African gold has come into prominence of late. The mountain districts of South America are gold producers. Mexico is a small producer. Nova Scotia has a number of small gold mines. It is considered probable that Western Canada contains large veins of gold-bearing quartz. The famous Klondike fields are in Canada. The world's output of gold has risen steadily and by bounds from $27,000,000 in 1849 to $125,000,000 in 1891. In 1905 the production reached $375,000,000--over a million a day. The London Statist gave the world's production of gold in 1908 as the largest in history, or $409,000,000, against $400,000,000 in 1907 and $390,000,000 in 1906. The following figures. show the increase in a quarter of a century: Country 1908. Africa. . . . . $350,000 $164,000,000 United States. . . . . 31,600,000 89,000,000 Australasia. . . . . 26,500,000 73,300,000 Russia. . . . . 21,250,000 21,900,000 Mexico. . . . . 18,000,000 Canada. . . . . 17,000,000 8,150,000 India. . . . . 13,000,000 Other countries. . . . . 21,650,000 Total $409,000,000 In 1850 the world's stock of gold was reckoned at $1,606,400,000. At the end of 1905 it had grown to $6,150,000,000. The chief use of gold is as money. Its bright color attracted the attention of the earliest civilizations, and it still ranks next to precious stones as an article of ornament. Gold was used for ornament and for money in Homeric times, and Caesar found gold pieces current in Great Britain when he landed in 55 B. C. Utensils of gold are still regarded as the limit of luxury. Gold is an excellent material for filling teeth, as it does not rust or cause the enamel of the tooth to decay. Genuine gilt is of gold, but, of course, many counterfeits are used. For all these purposes pure gold is too soft when used alone. It is therefore hardened by an admixture of some other metal. An addition of copper produces a darker or reddish yellow. Silver imparts a greenish or pale yellow tinge. Lead makes gold brittle. An alloy of gold, palladium, silver, and copper is so hard that it is used for bearings in fine watches. American gold coins contain nine parts of gold to one part of other metals, as silver. Jewelers reckon the fineness of gold in carats. An 18 K ring is 18-24 pure gold. Gold is worth $20.67 an ounce. It may be exchanged for coin at any of the United States assay offices or mints. The mechanical details of shipping gold are interesting. In case a New York bank has an order for, let us say, $2,000,000, trusty messengers are sent to the mint to exchange gold certificates for bullion. The yellow gold is handed out in slabs the size of an ordinary brick, save that they are six inches long. Each bar is stamped with its exact weight and fineness. These are transported to the bank in canvas bags. Here the bars are packed in kegs in sawdust to prevent rubbing and loss of the precious metal. Each keg is stamped with the value of its contents--as near $50,000 as may be. The shipment named would require about forty kegs and it weighs over four tons. It is taken to the steamer on an expressman's truck as unobtrusively as though it were a load of nail kegs save that several men hanging to the stakes of the dray are prepared to defend the gold if occasion arise. It is stored in the purser's strong room. The cost of shipment is placed at $3,125, freight; $1,000, insurance; $60, drayage; $20, cooperage;--total $4,205. See Mint ; Wages ; Gold Leaf; Gilding ; Carat Gold Leaf, gold beaten into sheets. It is much used for gilding books, gold leaf printing, and the like. The making of gold leaf is an art in itself. The gold is first rolled out into a ribbon, then cut into small squares, which are piled up alternately with pieces of goldbeater's skin. The pile is placed on a solid stone anvil, and beaten with heavy hammers, first one of sixteen pounds' weight, and then eight, and so on, until the small squares of gold extend to the edges of the skins. The gold is then removed, repiled, hammered again, and cut into small squares. The process is repeated until the gold has reached the desired degree of thinness. A workman spends about three days, including changes, in working a ribbon of fifty pennyweights of gold into leaf. Standard leaves of gold are three and three-eighths inches square. They are put up in little books of twentyfive leaves each, twenty books in a pack. The incredible number of 254,248 sheets of ordinary leaves make an inch in thickness. Even this number may be increased by one-half. Attempts to do the work by machinery have failed to secure satisfactory results. Goldbeater's skin is a tough, firm, delicate membrane prepared from the large intestine of the ox. The skins or leaves used in beating gold are so smooth that the precious metal does not adhere to them, and are so tough that they can be pounded for months with heavy hammers without injury. The skin is applied also as a sort of courtplaster for fresh cuts and wounds. Gold foil is a thicker sheet used by dentists in filling teeth. The tiny thread of gold used in making lace or gold braid is made in another way. A silver rod is rolled in gold leaf until it is thoroughly coated. The rod is then drawn out into wire so delicate that an ounce of it reaches a mile in length. If a flat thread be desired, the wire is flattened between steel rollers. The silver remains covered with gold throughout the entire process, though what was a heavy coating at first becomes a mere film. To strengthen the gold wire, whether round or flat, it is twisted by machinery around threads of strong yellow silk made for the purpose. This is the thread used in making gold lace, gold braid, officers' epaulets, etc. The gold leaf industry centers largely in Germany. The following information is gleaned from a recent consular report: This industry is carried on principally at Nuremberg, Furth, and Schwabach by several large concerns and many small ones. The total output is estimated at 6,000 packets of 500 leaves each per week, the value of the annual product being probably about $1,500,000. The cost of production per packet of 500 leaves, 3 3/8 inches square, is said to be approximately $1.07. The wholesale price per packet of size stated was, in 1908, $4.35 to $4.40 f. o. b. New York, exclusive of duty. The total importations of gold leaf into the United States in the fiscal year 1908 amounted to 14,796 packs of 500 leaves, the value being $68,417. The importations the previous year were 35,849 packs worth $167,263. The rate of duty is $1.75 per pack. The retail price in small quantities is 15 or 20 per cent more than the wholesale price. One of the leading concerns in this trade estimates the following wages per week as the usual rates in this industry under normal conditions: Experienced men, $8.33 to $11.90; helpers, $4.76 to $7.14; gold cutters (female), $2.38 to $3.81. Much of the labor is done by piece-work, for which a scale of prices is agreed upon by employers and the gold beaters' union. Under the present scale the wages are approximately as stated. About two-thirds of the output of gold leaf from this locality is said to go to England, the remaining one-third being consumed in Germany, United States, Canada, India, and other countries. The value of the declared export of this product from this district to the United States in 1908 was $39,648.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
Important: Safety Warning This page describes trade processes that use dangerously toxic materials such as cyanide solutions, mercury amalgams, or strong acids. These processes require training, equipment, and precautions far beyond what the text describes. This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon. a triatomic metallic element, symbol Âu; atomic weight, 196; specific gravity, 19.26; melting point about 1240° C., forming a green fluid which volatilizes at a higher temperature. Gold is a metal of a bright yellow color. It is very ductile; a grain of it can be drawn into a wire 50 feet long, and will gild two miles of fine silver wire. It is also very malleable; one grain can be beaten out to cover an area of 56.75 square inches. Gold does not oxidize or tarnish in the air, and is not acted upon by oxygen or water at any temperature; it is not dissolved by sulphuric, nitric, or hydrochloric acid, but is dissolved by aqua regia, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids. Gold crystallizes in cubes, octahedra, and other forms belonging to a regular system. Gold forms two series of salts, aurous and auric; it has been detected in sea water. Gold can be purified by melting it along with borax in a clay crucible, glazed inside with borax, and passing chlorine gas through the melted metal by means of a tobacco pipe stem; the other metals are converted into chlorides, which rise to the surface. When the operation is finished, the gold is allowed to cool, and the fused chlo- MT DAVIDSON 7827 Feet DE SHAFT COMSTOCK LODE 07 SOLFERINO LODE MONTE CHRISTO BURNSID JULIA LODE SCO rides poured off. Pure gold is prepared by dissolving the metal in a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids; the solution is evaporated to get rid of the nitric acid, then diluted with water and filtered; the gold is then precipitated by ferrous sulphate. 2AuCl2+6FeSO4 = Au₂ + FeCl + 2Fe2(SO4)3. Pure gold is a very soft metal, therefore it is alloyed with silver, which gives it a greenishyellow tint, or with copper, which gives it a yellowish-red color. Pharmacy. Gold has been used in medicine for scrofulous diseases and for chronic alcoholism. Gold terchloride is very poisonous, acting like corrosive sublimate. Gold leaf is used by dentists for filling teeth. Mineralogy. A metal crystallizing isometrically in octahedrons or dodecahedrons, as well as acicular, filiform, reticulated, arborescent, and spongiform shapes. There are four varieties, (1) Ordinary, and (2) Argentiferous gold or electrum, (3) Palladium gold or porpesite, (4) Rhodium gold. The gold product of the United States far exceeds that of any other land. Almost every State and Territory has yielded its share of the precious metal. By far the largest portions have come from California. Gold in Alaska was first reported by Tebenkof in 1848, but the first real important "find" was that of Joseph Juneau in 1880, near the site of the present town of Juneau. In August, 1896, J. F. Butler, a California miner, took out $10,000 in 10 days at a point 4 miles above Dawson. About the same time George W. Cormack discovered a rich field on the Klondike, in the Northwest Territory, reports of which caused a great rush to that region in 1897-1898. Within two months after the discovery, $5,000,000 were taken out. Though the Klondike region OBSERVATORY SHAFT BELLA UNIÓN LODE AIR SHAFT UNNEL SUTRO CROSS SECTION OF COMSTOCK LODE AT SUTRO, NEVADA attracted the most attention, it is a very small portion of the gold-bearing region of Alaska and Canada. Colorado is also a rich gold-producing State. The largest gold production in the world is from the Transvaal, and other provinces of South Africa. Geology.-Gold has been found in slate, quartzite, sandstone, limestone, granite, and serpentine. In many cases it occurs in veins of quartz, but much more accessibly in drifts, which the breaking up of those quartz veins has helped to produce. In the Ural Mountains the drift is Newer Pliocene; in California it is of two different ages, Europe but both, geologically viewed, compara- 618,690 tively recent; when in veins, it is more often found in the Palæozoic than in the Bible Secondary or Tertiary strata. In most brew cases the veins are near plutonic rocks. shine Production. The following table gold shows the production of gold in the aurum MINE KORE BIN BIN GATE CRUSHER BIN VCRUSHER CRUSHER SCALES CROSS SECTION OF United year 1920 States: and Alaska in the calendar gold covered Aryan GOLD first State or Territory Fine ounces Value posed Alaska. 481,984 $9,963,500 Arizona. 222,965 4,609,100 silver California. 495,810 841,638 17,398,200 white Colorado. 10,249,300 in Georgia.. 34 700 Idaho.. 704,600 sided 34,085 Illinois. 0 0 Maine.. 10 200 Michigan 0 0 peritoneal Missouri. 14 300 Montana. 2,416,900 ox. 116,918 Nevada... 4,659,100 gold 225,384 New Mexico... 28,319 585,400 is North Carolina. 5 100 Oregon. 1,096,200 this 53,029 Philippine Islands. 850,000 cuts 41,119 South Carolina. 5 100 tremely South Dakota. 255,889 5,289,700 Tennessee. 271 5,600 Texas.. 19 400 Utah.... 2,266,900 Prussian 109,661 Vermont. 19 400 miles Virginia... 0 0 Washington. both 11,436 236,400 Wyoming... '300 gold 14 gols 2,918,628 $60,333,400 War, from The value of the gold production of the has world in 1920 was $365,166,077, 77. divided as follows : North America, $91,440,724; Pop. Central and South America, $14,112,305; GOLD , $ 12,801,506; Australasia, $ 23, - ; Africa, $ 193,780,666. History. Gold is mentioned in the as early as Gen. ii: 12. The Heword is zahab, from zahab = to , to be brilliant. As the names of in the Aryan languages ( Latin , Greek chrysos,) differ from this, STORAGE TANK PERCOLATION TANK PERCOLATION TANK VACUUM VACUUM GOLD GOLD SOLUTION SOLUTION ZING ZINC DUMP SUMP SUMP CYANIDE PLANT may perhaps not have been distill after the separation of the and Semitic races. Gold was coined in England in 1257.