Gold, 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.. . . . . 1882.. . . . . 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. . . . . $96,700,000. . . . . $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. 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.