| Gold is one of the metals taken from the earth | | | | as the savage found it easy to beat out the pure |
| and is probably the first metal known to man. Its | | | | ore into circlets to adorn his limbs. The universal |
| first use has been traced back to 3600 B. C. and | | | | use of gold in preference to all other metals is |
| was probably originally obtained in Egypt, as the | | | | due to its many properties; its color and luster, its |
| ancient methods of obtaining gold in Egypt are | | | | malleability and its indestructibility. Gold does not |
| illustrated in early rock carvings. It is said in the | | | | tarnish nor can it be destroyed. It may be |
| book of Genesis that Abraham, in the twentieth | | | | reduced to a liquid and the liquid transferred to a |
| century B. C., when he went out of Egypt, was | | | | powder, and the powder when melted in a |
| very rich not only in cattle but in gold and silver | | | | crucible returns to its natural state. It is the most |
| both in dust and ingots. In Exodus xxv, 29, we | | | | malleable of all metals and has been hammered |
| read that Moses was commanded by the Lord to | | | | into leaves 1-282,000th of an inch thick. An ounce |
| make spoons of gold for the Tabernacle. In the | | | | of gold may be drawn out into a wire fifty miles |
| writings of Homer, Sophocles, Herodotus, Pliny and | | | | long. The tenacity of gold is seven tons per |
| others, gold is frequently mentioned.Gold is widely | | | | square inch.Pure gold, being too soft for all |
| distributed in nature and is found in many ways | | | | ordinary purposes, is generally alloyed with other |
| and in all parts of the world. It is found in water, in | | | | metals. Silver and copper are the principal alloys |
| the ice of Alaska, in the sand of South Africa, and | | | | used, although iron is used in small quantities for |
| in the quartz of Colorado, and is frequently found | | | | different purposes. Pure silver has a brilliant white |
| native, though usually alloyed with silver or iron. | | | | color and is the whitest of all metals. No metal |
| The purest specimens of native gold have yielded | | | | surpasses silver in its luster and hardness it ranges |
| from 96 to 99 per cent, pure metal.It is | | | | between pure gold and pure copper. It is more |
| remarkable that all of the races of mankind have | | | | fusible than copper or gold, melting at a bright red |
| selected gold as the first and chief representative | | | | heat or at 1873F. It is commonly used for the |
| of value. In the earliest times it was used as a | | | | purpose of alloying gold in its pure state, but if too |
| medium of exchange in the form of bars, spikes | | | | much is added it makes the gold pale. Pure copper |
| and rings; the rings could be opened and closed so | | | | is the only metal that has a reddish appearance. It |
| that a chain could be made for convenience in | | | | is both malleable and ductile; hence it is very |
| carrying. Gold was also used at a very early | | | | useful as an alloy for gold. |
| period for the construction of personal ornaments, | | | | |