Evening at Home 49

Evening at Home 49

Har._ I suppose they must be gold and silver mines?

 

_Tat._ Those, to be sure, are the most valuable, if the metals are found

in tolerable abundance. But do you know why they are so?

 

_Har._ Because money is made of gold and silver.

 

_Tut._ That is a principal reason, no doubt. But these metals have

intrinsic properties that make them highly valuable, else probably they

would not have been chosen in so many countries to make money of. In the

first place, gold and silver are both _perfect metals_, that is,

indestructible in the fire. Other metals, if kept a considerable time in

the fire, change by degrees into an earthy, scaly matter, called an

oxide. You have melted lead, I dare say?

 

_Geo._ Yes, often.

 

_Tut._ Have you not, then, perceived a drossy film collect upon its

surface, after it had kept melting a while?

 

_Geo._ Yes.

 

_Tut._ That is an oxide; and in time the whole lead would change to such

a substance. You may see, too, when you have heated the poker red-hot,

some scales separate from it, which are brittle.

 

_Har._ Yes, the kitchen poker is almost burnt away by putting into the

fire.

 

_Tut._ Well—all metals undergo these changes, except gold and silver;

but these, if kept ever so long in the hottest fire, sustain no loss or

change. They are therefore called _perfect metals_. Gold has several

other remarkable properties. It is the heaviest of all metals.

 

_Har._ What, is it heavier than lead?

 

_Tut._ Yes—about half as heavy again. It is between nineteen and twenty

times as heavy as an equal bulk of water. This great weight is a ready

means of discovering counterfeit gold coin from genuine; for as gold

must be adulterated with something much lighter than itself, a false

coin, if of the same weight with the true, will be sensibly bigger.

Gold, too, is the most ductile of all metals. You have seen gold-leaf?

 

_Geo._ Yes; I bought a book of it once.

 

_Tut._ Gold-leaf is made by beating a plate of gold placed between

pieces of skin, with heavy hammers, till it is spread out to the utmost

degree of thinness. And so great is its capacity for being extended,

that a single grain of the metal, which would be scarce bigger than a

large pin’s head, is beaten out to a surface of fifty square inches.

 

_Geo._ That is wonderful, indeed! But I know gold-leaf must be very

thin, for it will almost float upon the air.

 

_Tut._ By drawing gold out to a wire, it may be still farther extended.

Gold wire, as it is called, is made with silver overlaid with a small

proportion of gold, and they are drawn out together. In the wire

commonly used for laces, and embroidery, and the like, a grain of gold

is made completely to cover a length of three hundred and fifty-two

feet; and when it is stretched still farther by flatting, it will reach

four hundred and one feet.

 

_Geo._ Prodigious! What a vast way a guinea might be drawn out, then!

 

_Tut._ Yes, the gold of a guinea at that rate would reach above nine

miles and a half. This property in gold of being capable of extension to

so extraordinary a degree, is owing to its great tenacity or cohesion of

particles, which is such, that you can scarcely break a piece of gold

wire by twisting it.

 

_Har._ Then it would make very good wire for hanging bells.

 

_Tut._ It would; but such bell-hanging would come rather too dear.

Another valuable quality of gold, is its fine colour. You know scarce

anything makes a more splendid appearance than gilding. And a peculiar

advantage of it is, that gold is not liable to rust or tarnish, as other

metals are. It will keep its colour fresh for a great many years, in a

pure and clear air.

 

_Har._ I remember the vane of the church-steeple was new-gilt two years

ago, and it looks as well as at first.

 

_Tut._ This property of not rusting would render gold very useful for a

variety of purposes, if it were more common. It would make excellent

cooking utensils, water-pipes, mathematical instruments, clockwork, and

the like.

 

_Geo._ But is not gold soft? I have seen pieces of gold bent double.

 

_Tut._ Yes; it is next in softness to lead, and, therefore, when it is

made into coin, or used for any common purposes, it is mixed with a

small proportion of some other metal, in order to harden it. This is

called its _alloy_. Our gold coin has one twelfth of alloy, which is

copper.

 

_Geo._ How beautiful new gold coin is!

 

_Tut._ Yes—scarce any metal takes a stamp or impression better; and it

is capable of a very fine polish.

 

_Geo._ What countries yield the most gold?

 

_Tut._ South America, the East Indies, and the coast of Africa. Europe

affords but little; yet a moderate quantity is got every year from

Hungary.

 

_Geo._ I have heard of rivers rolling sands of gold. Is there any truth

in that?

 

_Tut._ The poets, as usual, have exaggerated the matter: however, there

are various streams in different parts of the world, the sands of which

contain particles of gold, and some of them in such quantity as to be

worth the search.

 

_Har._ How does the gold come there?

 

_Tut._ It is washed down along with the soil from mountains by the

torrents which are the sources of rivers. Some persons say that all

sands contain gold; but I would not advise you to take the pains to

search for it in our common sand: for, in more senses than one, _gold

may be bought too dear_.

 

_Har._ But what a fine thing it would be to find a gold mine on one’s

estate!

 

_Tut._ Perhaps not so fine as you may imagine, for many a one does not

pay the cost of working. A coal-pit would probably be a better thing.

Who do you think are the greatest gold-finders in Europe?

 

_Har._ I don’t know.

 

_Tut._ The gipsies in Hungary. A number of half-starved, half-naked

wretches of that community employ themselves in washing and picking the

sands of some mountain-streams in that country which contain gold, from

which they obtain just profit enough to keep body and soul together:

whereas, did they employ themselves in agriculture or manufactures, they

might have got a comfortable subsistence. Gold, almost all the world

over, is first got by slaves, and it makes slaves of those who possess

much of it.

 

_Geo._ For my part, I will be content with a silver mine.

 

_Har._ But we have none of those in England, have we?

 

_Tut._ We have no silver mines, properly so called, but silver is

procured in some of our lead mines. There are, however, valuable silver

mines in various parts of Europe; but the richest of all are in Peru, in

South America.

 

_Geo._ Are not the famous mines of Potosi there?

 

_Tut._ They are. Shall I now tell you some of the properties of silver?

 

_Geo._ By all means.

 

_Tut._ It is another _perfect_ metal. It is also as little liable to

rust as gold, though indeed it readily gets tarnished.

 

_Har._ Yes; I know our footman is often obliged to clean our plate

before it is used.

 

_Tut._ Plate, however, is not made of pure silver, any more than silver

coin, and silver utensils of all kinds. Copper is mixed with it, as with

gold, to harden it; and that makes it more liable to tarnish.

 

_Geo._ Bright silver, I think, is almost as beautiful as gold.

 

_Tut._ It is the most beautiful of the white metals, and is capable of a

very fine polish; and this, together with its rarity, makes it used for

a great variety of ornamental purposes. Then it is nearly as ductile and

malleable as gold.

 

_Geo._ I have had silver-leaf, and it seemed as thin as gold-leaf.

 

_Tut._ It is nearly so. That is used for silvering, as gold-leaf is for

gilding. It is common, too, to cover metals with a thin coating of

silver which is called plating.

 

_Har._ The child’s saucepan is silvered over on the inside. What is that

for?

 

_Tut._ To prevent the victuals from getting any taint from the metal of

the saucepan; for silver is not capable of being corroded or dissolved

by any of the liquids used for food, as iron and copper are.

 

_Har._ And that is the reason I suppose that fruit-knives are made of

silver.

 

_Tut._ It is; but the softness of the metal makes them bear a very poor edge.