GOLD. 



France require it to be fpun on flaxen or hempen threads. 

 The Chinefe, inftcad of flatted gilt wire, ufe (lips of gilt 

 paper, which tlicy interweave in their ftuffs, and twill upon 

 lilk threads. 



Gold, Tun of, is a kind of money of account, for- 

 merly ufed by tiie Dutch, and in fome other countries, con- 

 taining a hundred thoufand florins. 



A hundred pounds of, or in, gold, is found to weigh 

 two pounds ten ounces : the fum in filver weighs twenty- 

 fix pounds four ounces. Twenty-two pence in copper far- 

 things and half-pence, weigh one pound avoirdupois. A 

 tun of gold, at 4/. the ounce, amounts to 96,000/. .\ tun 

 of filver, at Jj. 2d. the ounce, to 6200/. A pound ftcr- 

 ling of gold to 48/. An ounce is worth 4/, The penny- 

 •weight 4J-. One grain, 2d. A pound of fterling iilver 

 amounts to 3/. 2s. An ounce is vvortli Jj. zd. The penny- 

 weight, 3(7. and fomethiiig more ; one grain a half-penny. 

 A pound of filver avoirdupois comes to 3/. 5.1. ^d. half- 

 penny. 



Gold, Virgin, is pure gold, juft as it is taken out of the 

 mines, before it has nndergone any aftion or preparation of 

 fire;whence the Greeks call it aTujo.;. , 



Such is the,a^i^oxfjcro;, or gold-diift, and that got by lo- 

 tion in the lavaderos in Chili : it is added, that there are 

 m.afles or lumps of pure gold foand in the mines, particu- 

 larly thofe of Hungary. Accordingly, in the emperor's 

 coUeftion, are ftill preferved feveral plates of gold, faid to 

 •have been thus found. 



Virgin gold is fometimes very pale, and fo foft, that 

 it may be moulded into any figure with the liand ; it even 

 takes .sn impreffion from a feal, like the fofteft wax. To 

 harden it, as alfo to heighten its colour, they mix emery 

 .with it. 



Gold, White. See Platina. 



Gold Wire is a cylindrical ingot of filver, above an inch 

 thick, two feet in length, and weighing about twenty 

 pounds, fiiperficially gilt, or covered with gold at the 

 tire, and afterwards drawn fucceflively through a great 

 number of little round holes of a wire -drawing iron, 

 each -lefs than the other, till it be fometimes no bigger than 

 a hair of the head. There is very little wire made entirely 

 of gold, and this chiefly for one particular purpofe, that of 

 fiUigree work. 



It is amazing to what degree of finenefs the gold is here 

 drawn ; and yet it ftill keeps firm together, and never (hews 

 the leaft figns ol the filver underneath it. The reader may fee a 

 computation hereof, as alfo a more particular account of the 



which are applied all over the filver rod, and prelTed down 

 fmooth witl; a fteel burnifher. Several of tliefe leaves are 

 laid over one another, as the gilding is required to be more 

 or lefs thick. The fmalleft proportion allowed by aft of 

 parliament, is 100 grains of gold to a pound, or 5760 grains 

 of filver. The largeft proportion for the bell double gilt 

 wire was Formerly 120 grains to a pound ; but the propor- 

 tion of gold has been of late increafed to about 140 grains. 

 The firil part of the drawing procefs, as well as the prepa- 

 ration and gilding of the filver rod, is performed by the re- 

 finer, who ufes plate of hardened Heel, with a piece of tough 

 iron welded on the back, to prevent the fteel from breaking. 

 The holes in thefe plates are conical, being larger in the 

 back part than in the fteel, that the rod may not be fcratchcd 

 againil the outer edge, and that they may contain bees-wax, 

 wliich makes the rod pafsmore freely, and preferves the gold 

 from being rubbed o(F. One end of the red, made fmaller 

 than the reft, is puilied through a hole that will admit it, 

 when the plate has been properly fecured, and laid hold of 

 by ftrong pincers, called clamps, adapted to the purpofe ; 

 to thefe pincers, which are fo contrived, that the force which- 

 pulls them horizontally, ferves at the fame time to prefs 

 them together, a rope is faftened by one end, and the other 

 end goes round a capitan with crofs bars, whicii requires the 

 ftrength of feveral men to turn it. The rod, thus drawn 

 through, is well annealed ; it is then pafted through the next 

 hole ; and the annealing and drawing are repeated, till, being 

 reduced to about the fize of a large quill, it is delivered in 

 coils to the wire-drawers. The remainder of t'ne procefs re- 

 quires plates of a different quality, which are brought from 

 Lyons in France, and are (ormed of a metallic mafs, whofc 

 prevailing ingredient is iron : the holes are drilled in them 

 here. Thefe plates are ot two forts ; fome of confijerable 

 thicknefs, for the wire in its larger ftate,and otliers about half 

 as thick, for the finer wire. In the ufe of tiiele plates, fur- 

 niftied with a variety of holes, the dexterity of the workman 

 principally confifts in adapting the liole to the wire : for 

 this purpofe lie ufes a brafs plate, called a fi/.e, on wliich is 

 meauired, by means of notches, like fteps cut atone end, tlie 

 increafe which a certain length of wire fliould gain in paf- 

 fing through a frefh hole ; and if the wire is found to (Ireteh 

 too much or too little, the hole is widened or contracted. 

 Shtsof different widths, in thick poli(hed iron rings, ierve 

 alfo as gages for meafuring the degree of finenefs of the 

 wire. 



The wire-drawer's procefs begins with annealing the large 

 wire received from the refiner, wliich he does, by placing it. 



Id. 



manner of proceeding, under the article Ductility of coiled up, on fome lighted charcoal, in a cylindrical cavity, 



called the pit, under a chimney, and throwing more burning 

 charcoal over it. When it is cooled by being quenched in 

 water, one end is paded through the iiril hole in the thick 

 plate, and fattened to an upright wooden cylinder fix or eight 

 inches in diameter ; in the top of which are two ilaples, and 

 through thefe is palTed the long arm of a handle, by which 

 the cylinder is turned on its axis by feveral men. By this 

 procefs, called degroffing, the wire is frequently annealed and 

 quenched, after pafllng through every hole, or every other 

 hole, till it is brought to about the fize of the fmall end of 

 a tobacco pipe, and then cut into portions for the fine 

 wire-drawer. In this laft part of the wire-drawing pro- 

 cefs, annealing is not neceffary, but the wire is waxed at 

 every hole. The contrivance for drawing the wire through 

 the plate in this cafe, when lefs force is needful, is a kind of 

 a wooden wheel placed horizontally, having in its upper fur- 

 face fmall holes at difierent diftances from the axis, intg 

 one or other of which, according to the force required, 



go, 



Gold Wire flatted, is the former wire flatted between two 

 rollers of pohlhed llee', to fit it to be fpun in filk, or to be 

 ufed fiat as it is without fpinning, in certain ftulFs, laces, em- 

 broideries, &c. 



Manner of forming Gold Wire and Gold thread, both 

 round and flat .—T\\e firll objecl, whicli is of the utmoil 

 confequence, is the choice of the purell gold ; for on 

 this chiefly depends the beauty and durability of the colour 

 of the laces, brocades, and other commodities prepared from 

 it. To a difference in this refpeft, the boalted fuperiority 

 of the French laces to the generality of thofe made in Eng- 

 land, till of late, has been wholly ow-ing. With regard to 

 the filver that forms the body of the wire, it is faid that 

 there is an advantage in its being alloyed. The French fil- 

 ver for gilding is faid to be alloyed with five or fix penny- 

 weight, and ours with twelve penny-weight of copper, in 

 the pound Tray. The gold is employed in thick leaves, 



