Gold Facts You Didn’t Know
Gold Facts You Didn’t Know
Gold has been around with us for at least 4,000 years and it has probably held a fascination for mankind for as long as he’s been around. Gold is a beautiful metal and its appearance and rarity have made it highly desirable, but here are a few facts about gold you probably never knew!
1. The space shuttle relies on gold electronic circuitry to work in space – without gold electronic components the Shuttle would never get off the ground!
2. If you gathered all the gold in the world together, you would have a cube approximately 70 feet square, in fact you could fit all of the gold ever produced in the world into a medium sized house, but you’d need extremely strong foundations and floors!
3. One ounce of gold can be turned into a thread over 50 miles long!
4. Gold is drunk and eaten – ask for a Goldschlagger next time you hit the bar, but beware, gold is highly toxic if it gets into your bloodstream!
5. Gold is used as a painkiller – a gold salt can be dissolved in a solution and this was the standard pain relief for those suffering from arthritis until the early 20th Century, though it is still used today as a treatment of last resort forsufferers!
6. Since 2005, gold has beaten Google as an investment – back then gold and Google shares were the same value but in 2009, gold hit over $1,000 an ounce, and Google didn’t!
7. Native American Indians believed that by eating gold, they would be able to fly with the eagles, hence the name “Golden Eagle”.
8. Over 80% of the total gold on the earth is still in the ground!
9. Gold is believed to have been first mined 4,500 years ago in Ancient Egypt in a region known as Nubia;
10. In 1925, Lord Carter and his team discovered Tutankhamen’s Tomb – the coffin was made from pure gold!
11. Even the most efficient gold mining operation in the world needs to mine 400 tons of earth and rock to get just 30 tons of ore which will produce just one ounce of gold!
12. Gold was one of the three gifts given to baby Jesus, along with frankincense and myrhh, because there were three types of present, people assume there are only “Three Wise men” or kings – in fact the Bible doesn’t say how many Wise Men there actually were!
13. California may have had the famous Gold Rushes starting in 1848, but the Tar Heel State of North Carolina has the distinction of being home to the first gold rush way back in 1803!
14. “Fool’s Gold” or pyrites is frequently confused for real gold but it smells of rotten eggs when it is struck with a flint because of the iron sulfide which makes it up.
15. Gold is referred to more than any other element in the Bible!
16. Gold along with copper, are the oldest metals known to man;
17. Gold inflation is the underlying cause of the fall of the Ancient Roman Empire – not enough gold could be produced to pay the Roman army or to bribe the invaders from the German plain to keep them from attacking;
18. Gold icons produced by the Byzantines were destroyed by the newly established church in the 4th Century – this gave rise to the term, “iconoclast” or destruction of the icons;
19. Drinking molten gold was thought to cure the Black Death in Europe during the Middle Ages, it was also a means of putting to death a traitor who was related to the royal family;
20. Alchemists tried in vain to turn lead into gold, but in their efforts to do so, they laid the foundation for the modern science of chemistry upon which we all depend today.