GOLD. 171 
leaves, each an inch square. These leaves are only 
TbVoo-o of an inch thick ; and the gold leaf which is 
used to cover silver wire is but the twelfth part of that 
thickness. An ounce of gold upon silver wire is ca- 
pable of being extended more than 1,300 miles in 
length : and sixteen ounces of gold, which, in the form 
of a cube, would not measure more than an inch and a 
quarter on each side, will completely gild a silver wire 
in length sufficient to compass the whole earth like a 
hoop. 
Gold is beaten into leaves upon a smooth block of 
marble, fitted into the middle of a wooden frame about 
two feet square, in such manner that the surfaces of 
the marble and of the frame are exactly level. On three 
of the sides there is a high ledge ; and the front, which 
is open, has a flap of leather attached to it, which the 
man who beats the gold us^s as an apron for preserving 
the fragments that fall off. In this process there are 
three kinds of animal membranes used, some of which 
are laid between the leaves to prevent their uniting 
together, and others over them to defend them from 
being injured by the hammer. The exterior cover is 
of parchment. For interlaying with the gold, the 
smoothest and closest vellum that can be procured is 
first used ; and, when the gold becomes thinner, this is 
exchanged for much finer skin, made of the entrails' of 
oxen, prepared for this express purpose, and hence 
called gold beater s sJdn. After the leaf has been beaten 
to a sufficient degree of thinness, it is taken up by a 
cane instrument, and thrown flat upon a leathern 
cushion, where it is cut to a proper size with a square 
frame of cane, or wood edged with cane. These pieces 
are then fitted into books of twenty-five leaves each, 
the paper of which has been well smoothed, and rubbed 
with red bole (127), to prevent them from sticking. 
The leaves are about three inches square, and the gold 
of each book weighs somewhat more than four grains 
half. 
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