Gold cord

“ The gravel is then placed in the hopper of the cradle which separates the larger stones and pebbles, the remainder passing down over inclined ledges as the cradle is slowly rocked and supplied with water. At the bottom of each ledge is a riffle to arrest the particles of gold. Sometimes, when the gold is very fine, amalgamated copper plates are introduced and the lower ledges are covered with green baize to act as blanket tables and catch gold which might otherwise be lost. ”

“ This is no ordinary cradle, like the other. This is the very identical warranted genuine cradle into which that enormous lump of gold, weighing three and three-quarter ounces–the finest nugget ever unearthed at Hangman’s Gulch–was about to be shovelled by that largest and most enormous lump of a lad, the gentleman at my right, when seized upon and claimed as private property in accordance with the laws of these diggings. This is the very identical historical cradle! Now, how much am I bid!”
The crowd laughed–but it bid! We got two hundred and forty dollars for it. ”

“ The metal gold, on the contrary, tried by the same supreme test, shows itself to be in no sense a "standard" of value, for it jumps about like the mercury in a barometer with every movement of the commercial atmosphere, its vibrations—to speak within the fact—having dodged about, up and down, as much as 20 per cent, down from a given point and then back to that point, and then 20 per cent, up from that same point, all within the short space of 40 or 50 years! ”

“ In classical times attalica and other gold stuffs were made of solid gold wire beaten out with the hammer. 1 Masses of this fine gold wire 2 have been found in the tombs of Egypt, Greece, and Etruria, the metal having lasted long after all the rest of the stuff had crumbled into dust. In 1544 the grave of the wife of Honorius was opened and 36 tt> of gold thread taken out of it and melted. Gold Throughout the Middle Ages cloth of gold was largely cloth. ”

“ Next, we find a dozen workwomen, each at her machine, pushing snips of gold into grooves, where they are pierced with a pattern, or one or two holes of a pattern, and made to fall into a receiver below. Each may take about a second of time. Farther on, slender gold wire is twisted into links by myriads. At every seat the counter is cut out in a semicircle, whereby room is saved, and the worker has a free use of her arms. ”

“ The proportions of gold and silver in the gold thread for the woven braid lace or ribbon trade varies, but in all cases the proportion of gold is exceedingly small. An ordinary gold braid wire is drawn from a bar containing 90 parts of silver and 7 of copper, and plated with 3 of gold. ”

“ The deposits of gold at the south pole were richer than the wildest reports had represented them. The shipments of the precious metal to America and Europe soon became enormous—so enormous that the metal was no longer precious. The price of gold dropped like a falling stone, with accelerated velocity, and within a year every money centre in the world had been swept by a panic. Gold was more common than iron. ”

“ It is a rather soft metal, and, being likewise costly, is never used in an absolutely pure state. Coins and jewellery are all alloyed with copper and silver to give them the requisite hardness and durability. Gold is extremely ductile, and very malleable. One grain of gold may be drawn into a wire five hundred feet in length, and the metal may be beaten into almost transparent leaves 1/200000 of an inch in thickness! ”

“ Men of all classes, capable of wielding a pick or a spade, and many to whom such instruments had been previously unknown, were seen abandoning their farms, their shops, or their counting-houses, to swell the throng which rushed forth from every quarter to “prospect” for gold in the gullies and creeks whose appearance or geological formation promised a yield of the precious metal. ”

“ When the miner finds it there, he does not call it gold, he calls it "color." This rude device that is simply motion, water, and a receptacle for the particles of gold, is the same process elaborated upon by expensive machinery, that tears up and runs through the mill thousands of tons of material found along streams, and in gulches, where streams ran ages ago, and which, changing their channels, have left their deposits of gold containing the wash from the lump or quartz gold, found in the veins of ore. ”

“ The distributor is a wooden box the full width of the stamper box or mortar, having a perforated iron bottom set some three to four inches above the first copper plate, which should come up under the lip. The effect of this arrangement is that the pulp is dashed on to the plate by the falling water, and the gold at once coming in contact with the mercury begins to accumulate and attract that which follows, till the amalgam becomes piled in little crater-shaped mounds, and thus 75 per cent. of the gold is saved on the top plate. ”

“ As long as the person stands over the attracting body, the rod continues to be attracted, but as soon as the fore foot is beyond it, then the rod is drawn down backward to the face. Metals have different degrees of attraction: gold is strongest, next copper, then iron, silver, tin, lead, bones, coals, springs of water and lime-stone. To make common experiments, set the foot on a piece or coin of any of these metals, having the rod in your hands as before directed. ”

“ This great bell is said to be worth a hundred thousand dollars, as it contains a large amount of gold. Before it was cast the people of all classes crowded around to throw their offerings into the furnace where the metal was melted; women gave the golden ornaments from their ears, and the anklets and armlets that are so highly cherished throughout the East; men threw into the molten mass their golden scabbards, often glistening with jewels, and their costly betel-boxes; and even children came with their toys of copper or baser metals, where they were too poor to give gold or silver. ”

“ Most silver ores are easily recognisable, and readily tested by means of the blowpipe or simple fire assay. Sometimes the silver on being tested is found to contain a considerable percentage of gold, as in the great Comstock lode in Nevada. Ore from the big Broken Hill silver lode, New South Wales, also contains an appreciable quantity of the more precious metal. A natural alloy of gold, termed electrum, contains 20 per cent. ”

“ The gold is obtained in a variety of ways; some wash it out of the sand with bowls, some with a machine made like a cradle, only longer and open at the foot, while at the other end, instead of a squalling infant, there is a grating upon which the earth is thrown, and then water; both pass through the grating,--the cradle is rocked, and being on an inclined plane, the water carries off the earth, and the gold is deposited in the bottom of the cradle. ”

“ What risk there might be of the painful results of war befalling the wearer of a dynamite ring through its detonating unexpectedly because of some powerful shock, is perhaps too slight to deter those who are in eager pursuit of novelties.
The pale alloy of gold, known as electrum, [181] was favored for ring-making in Oriental Greece, and is termed “white gold” in ancient inventories. Thus in an inventory of the temple treasures of Eleusis, made in 332 B.C., there is mention of “two plain gold rings of [111] white gold.” ”

“ He also knew by hearsay the western route, viâ Apollonian Béin.
c. Native Modes of Working Gold.
In all places, and at all times, gold, probably the metal first used by man, has been worked in the same way. This is a fair evidence of that instinctive faculty which produces a general resemblance of rude stone-implements from England to Australia. There are six methods for 'getting' the precious metal—surfacing or washing; shallow-sinking; sluicing, or removing the earth through natural and artificial channels; deep sinking; tunnelling, and quartz-mining. ”

“ If, however, the gold is “free,” and the lode large, a very few pennyweights (or “dollars,” as the Americans say) to the ton will pay handsomely. The mode of extraction longest in vogue, and after all the cheapest and most effective, for free milling ores where the gold is not too fine, is amalgamation with mercury, which metal has a strong affinity for gold, silver, and copper.
As to crushing appliances, I shall not say much. “Their name is legion for they are many,” and the same may be said of concentrators. ”

“ If you have "struck it rich" you will have the pleasure of seeing your primitive windlass grow to a "whip," a "whim," and eventually to a big powerful engine, with its huge drum and Eiffel tower-like "poppet heads," or "derrick," with their great spindle pulley wheels revolving at dizzy speed high in air.
"How shall I know if I have payable gold so as to save time and trouble in sinking?" says the novice. Truly it is a most important part of the prospector's art, whether he be searching for alluvial or reef gold, stream or lode tin, copper, or other valuable metal. ”

“ As might be supposed, both vendor and purchaser try to cheat each other. The gold finder mixes with the real gold dust inferior sand, made by melting copper and silver together, or by rubbing together copper filings and red coral powder. If larger pieces of gold were to be imitated, the usual plan was to make little nuggets of copper, and surround them with a mere shell of gold. ”

“ For if a gold coin be placed in each hand, the rod will only turn in the direction of gold, because it becomes impregnated with the corpuscles or minute particles of gold. If silver be treated in the same way, the rod will only dip towards silver. This, at any rate, is what we are told by those who pride themselves on their successful use of the rod."
John Stears, the expert diviner, who was recently employed at Tobermory Bay, is more frequently retained to search for water than for lost treasure. ”

“ If perfectly pure, it is denominated gold 24 carats fine; if alloyed with one part of any other metal or mixture of metals, it is said to be 23 carats fine. The standard gold coin of the United States and Great Britain is 22 carats fine; or, in other words, it contains one-twelfth part of alloy. Gold, made standard by equal parts of copper and silver, approaches in color more nearly to pure gold than when alloyed in any other manner.
5. Gold is found in veins in mountains, most usually associated with ores of silver, sulphurets of iron, copper, lead, and other metals. ”

“ He is capable, as even the wildest African tribes are, of drawing fine wire. When rings—the favourite form in which the precious metal is carried coastward—are to be made, the gold is run without any flux in a crucible of sun-dried red clay, which is covered over with charcoal or braize. ”

“ Machinery unknown ten years ago, has done away with the primitive methods that kept the production of gold constant and within bounds. In the Transvaal, the hills and valleys are being ground up by powerful machines that separate the gold from the earth and rock. Then, too, a giant stream of water is now turned against the base of a mountain that melts away like mist before the sun, and sends a stream of gold to the mint.
Gold has always been the standard of values among all civilized nations. ”

“ It is in no way necessary, on account of any intrinsic or inherent quality of gold, that should have that particular metal, and that alone, for money.
It is boasted that gold is a universal measure. Why is it universal? Why is gold accepted in every country of the world? ”

“ The gold used by jewellers has often a much greater proportion of alloy—for this name is given both to a compound metal and the cheaper metal made to combine with the more precious. The object gained by thus alloying the coinage, is that of rendering the metals harder, so that they shall not suffer much loss in wearing; thus a small quantity of copper mixed with either gold or silver, renders them both harder, although itself softer than either. ”

“ It fuses at 1090°—at a higher temperature than silver—and can be drawn into exceedingly fine wires or hammered into thin sheets. With its softness and ductility, gold is distinguished for its tenacity, and a gold wire two millimetres thick breaks only under a load of 68 kilograms. Gold vaporises even at a furnace heat, and imparts a greenish colour to a flame passing over it in a furnace. ”

“ In searching for the course of the metal, I have found small quantities by digging on the hill-tops, and am fully persuaded that the gold is washed by the rains, until seeking, as it always does, a permanent bottom, it rests in any pocket or crevice that can prevent it from being washed further, or falls into a stream running at the base of the hills, to find a resting-place in its bed, or be again deposited on its banks. ”

“ Then a little lead (also weighed) is rolled up with the flake of silver and the two are melted at a great heat in a small vessel called a cupel, made by compressing bone ashes into a cup-shape in a steel mold. The base metals oxydize and are absorbed with the lead into the pores of the cupel. A button or globule of perfectly pure gold and silver is left behind, and by weighing it and noting the loss, the assayer knows the proportion of base metal the brick contains. He has to separate the gold from the silver now. ”

“ If they are employed to refine an ingot of silver containing less than one-tenth of gold, they retain for themselves a two-thousandth part of the gold, and all the copper, existing in the alloy; return all the rest of the gold, with the whole of the silver, in the ingot; and give, besides, to the owners a premium or bonus, which amounted lately to 3⁄4 of a franc on the kilogramme of metal. Should the owner desire to have the whole of the gold and silver contained in his ingot, the refiner then demands from him 2 francs and 68 centimes per kilogramme, retaining the copper of the alloy. ”