GOLD 



2526 



GOLDEN BULL 



hundredth of an inch in thickness. This is cut 

 into pieces about one inch square, which are 

 laid between leaves of a very thin, tough 

 paper. Exactly in the middle of each leaf the 

 gold is placed, and the alternation of paper and 

 gold is continued until there are 210 sheets of 

 gold in the little pile, which is called a cutch. 

 This is bound in parchment, laid on a marble 

 block and beaten for twenty minutes with a 

 large hammer which weighs sixteen or seven- 

 teen pounds. So much elasticity has the cutch 

 that the hammer actually rebounds, and does 

 not need to be lifted. 



When the first beating stops, the little gold 

 sheets are three and one-half inches square. 

 Each one is then cut into four squares, and 

 these are placed between leaves of gold-beat- 

 er's skin, a special membrane prepared from 

 the intestine of the ox. The beating is con- 

 tinued with a ten-pound hammer for about two 

 hours; the gold sheets are again taken out and 

 quartered; and a third beating with a seven- 

 pound hammer reduces them after about four 

 hours to their final state, when they are known 

 as gold leaf. 



Gold Leaf. The incredibly thin leaves, 

 through which the light can now filter, are 

 taken up with wooden pincers, laid on a 

 leather cushion, and trimmed with a knife 

 made of rattan to sheets three and one-half 

 inches square. Twenty-five of these, between 

 sheets of paper, make up a "book," and the 

 books are sold in packs of twenty, the whole- 

 sale price of a pack averaging a little more 

 than seven dollars. As the cost of the gold 

 thus used is somewhat over four dollars, and as 

 the long and tedious process must all be carried 

 on by hand, it may be seen that the profit is not 

 excessive. The ordinary gold leaf of commerce 

 is not reduced to the very minimum thinness, 

 but each one is about 2 o 0*0 o a of an inch in 

 thickness. 



Gold leaf as used in the arts is familiar to 

 everybody. It appears in the lettering on book 

 covers, on picture frames, on furniture, on pot- 

 tery everywhere, in fact, where gilding is 

 used; for most gilding is done by means of 

 gold leaf. On the Egyptian mummy cases 

 which have lain in the tombs for thousands 

 and thousands of years, there are numerous 

 examples of such gilding, which show that the 

 ancients must have understood gold-beating 

 almost as well as do modern artisans. 



Dentists, too, use large quantities of gold 

 leaf, as that is the form in which their material 

 for fillings comes to them. Theirs, however, 



is not the very thinnest variety, as the beating 

 is not carried beyond the cutch stage, and it 

 must be pure gold and not an alloy. 



Gold lace consists of very fine strips of gold 

 twined around silk. It contains only about 

 two and one-half per cent of gold. Precipi- 

 tated gold (purple of Cassius) is used in the 

 manufacture of ruby glass. A.MC c. 



Consult Curie's Gold Mines of the World; 

 Kemp's Ore Deposits of the United States. 



Related Subjects. Further information con- 

 nected with gold may be obtained from the fol- 

 lowing articles in these volumes : 

 Alchemy Ductility 



Alloy Gravity, Specific 



Amalgam Malleability 



Carat Mining 



Chemistry Money 



GOLD COAST, a British colony in West 

 Africa, with a coast line of 334 miles, extending 

 along the Gulf of Guinea. It owes its name to 

 the abundance of gold found in all parts of the 

 colony. The area of the Gold Coast itself is 

 about 25,000 square miles, but with Ashanti 

 and the Northern Territory annexed in 1901, 

 the area is nearly 81,000 square miles. The 

 climate is very unhealthful, and few Europeans 

 can withstand the deadly fevers prevalent in 

 all parts of the colony. The soil is wonderfully 

 fertile, and produces coffee, cocoa, tobacco, 

 cotton and spices. The chief exports are gold, 

 copra, palm oil, rubber and cocoa. The colony 

 is divided into three provinces, Western, Cen- 

 tral and Eastern, administered by resident com- 

 missioners, who are responsible to the gov- 

 ernor of Cape Coast Colony, appointed by 

 the British Crown. Ashanti and the Northern 

 Territory each have separate chief commis- 

 sioners. The chief towns are Coomassie, cap- 

 ital of Ashanti, Accra, Cape Coast Castle, 

 Seecondee, Quittah, and Winnebah. Popula- 

 tion in 1911, 1,503,386. 



GOLDEN AGE, a term used to represent the 

 period of highest development in literature 

 and art in a country. The Romans used it to 

 describe the ideal time when, under Saturn's 

 reign, the earth produced without cultivation, 

 and happiness, peace and sinlessness prevailed. 

 It is broadly applied to the fanciful era, usu- 

 ally of extreme youth, before one's illusions 

 are lost. 



GOLDEN BULL, a term applied in a general 

 way to any state document bearing a golden 

 seal. The word is from the Latin bulla aurea, 

 so called from the golden case in which the 

 seal attached to the bull, or document, was 

 inclosed. One golden bull in particular relates 



