USA > California > Placer County > History of Placer county, California > Part 42
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They soon lose their teeth from salivation, and are subject to paralysis, convulsions and premature old age. In fact. the inhabitants are universally afflicted with toothache, and few live to the age of forty.
The miners become so impregnated with mercury. that a piece of brass put in their mouths, or rubbed between their fingers, becomes white like silver. Criminals and persons accused of political offenses 1
are set to work in this fatal mine for punishment."
CHARACTER AND USES OF GOLD.
Gold has been known from the earliest ages. It is by no means a rare metal, though not so nniver- sally diffused as iron, lead. silver or copper. 1 ts superior valne depends, like all other costly sub- stanees, on its comparative scarcity and the amount of labor requisite to obtain it. Its specifie gravity is 19.5, about nineteen times heavier than water, or nearly as great as that of platinum. It is inelastic, soft and more malleable and ductile than any other of the metals. It can be hammered into leaves only the .282 part of an inch in thickness without losing its adhesion, so that one grain in weight is made to eover 56} square inches.
In this state of thinness. it is found to admit of the green rays of light passing through it. In tenacity, however, gold is inferior to iron. copper, platinum or silver. 1 wire one-tenth of an inch in diameter will only support a weight of 191 pounds. The greatest quantities of gold in most countries, have been met with in the sands of rivers and on the surface of the earth, in small grains or pieces of irregular forms and sizes. At Sofala, on the south- east side of the peninsula, gold is found not only in alluvium, but also in veins. It is conjectured that the Ophir of Scripture was situated on that coast.
The high value which has always been set upon
gold, its immense importance to commerce, its beauty as personal and domestic ornaments, the labor required to obtain it, and the privations and suffer- ings endured by those employed in searching for it, have caused an interest to be attached to it which belongs to no other metal, and indeed to no other natural product among the many which man has pressed into his service. Although in a sense, gold might be said to be imperishable. and from its valne and utility is very carefully preserved, yet it must be remembered that there are many ways in which it is lost and destroyed. The gold coins in circula- tion are constantly losing something in size and weight by the attrition of fair wear and tear, to say nothing of the frauds practiced in reducing them for purposes of gain. Immense quantites of gold are used for watch-cases and jewelry, and in gilding and ornamenting thonsands of articles of taste and luxury.
That portion in daily use is subject to continual waste, whilst gold-leaf and chloride of gold as applied to photography. must be reckoned as among the nses to which the metal is applied and irrecoverably lost. Nor must we omit to mention the gold used in dentistry-difficult to think of, orto estimate, but amounting to many hundreds of ounces annually, and is as liable to waste by wear and tear, as that employed solely for ornaments. Large sums are lost by shipwrecks, in conveying coin or bullion from one country to another for the purposes of trade. Hence the difficulty, or more properly speak- ing. the impossibility of knowing what is the actual amount or value of gold existing in the world, either coined, manufactured. or in the form of bullion.
The principal uses of gold in civilized countries, are either for vessels and ornaments, or for money. For the latter purpose it is particularly well adapted by its qualities. Its power of resisting the action of the atmosphere, and of not oxydizing or rusting, as most other metals do, eanses coins made of it to last, and retain their color and the sharpness of the impression stamped upon them, for a great many years. Gold is never used quite pure for the purpose of coining, because, in that state it would be too soft to bear the constant rubbing to which it would be subjected in circulating as money. In England, gold for coin is alloyed with two parts of copper to twenty-two of pure gold. The beauty of its color. its brilliance, as well as its intrinsic value, causes gold to be much employed as a luxury in ornaments for the person, in vessels and plate for the table, and in furniture. The gold thread used in embroidery is obtained by easting a cylinder of silver of about 360 ounces in weight, which is then covered with a coating of gold leaves weighing altogether about six ounces, thus making in all about 366 ounces. This cylinder is drawn through holes in iron plates, gradually diminishing in diameter. till it is extended into a thin wire, as thin as a hair, and above 200 miles in length. To etlect this it is passed through
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more than 140 holes. And yet this fine wire is, throughout its whole length, composed of a silver wire equally covered with a coating of gold which cannot exceed 1-490,444 part of an inch in thickness. If this wire be dipped into nitrous acid, which dis- solves silver but not gold, the silver central core is removed, leaving the thin coating of gold like a hollow cylinder. This is perhaps the nearest approach to the ultimate subdivision of matter attainable by mechanical means.
If a solution of gold be made in nitro-muriatic acid, and a bar of pure tin be dipped into the liquid, the powder which is precipitated is known as the purple precipitate of Cassius, and so called from its inventor. It is generally used for forming purple and violet colors in enamel and porcelain painting. A preparation of gold is obtained from a solution in nitro-muriatic acid, which is called fulminating gold from its exploding with great violence on being slightly heated or struck, or even rubbed. In these qualities it is only inferior to fulminating silver. This compound is used in porcelain painting for giving a earmine tint.
It is roughly estimated in history that before the discovery of gold in California and Australia, the total annual yield of gold from all parts of the world did not exceed in value £5.500,000. Reckoning this at the usual rate of £4 per ounce (this is the com- mercial mode of reckoning as being short and conven- ient), it will be equal to 1,375,000 troy onnecs. If these be converted into the (avoirdupois) weight of commerce, as applied to merchandise, it will be equal to 42 tons, 1 ewt., 9 lbs., 3 grs. This statement is probably incorrect, and consequently not to be relied upon.
SILVER
Has been known from the earliest ages. Its specific gravity is 10.5, being inferior in weight to platinum, gold, mercury, lead, tungsten and palladium, but heavier than copper, iron and all others. Silver is tasteless and void of odor. It is more elastic than gold, and in malleability is second only to that metal. It may be beaten out into leaves of one ten-thou- sandth of an inch in thickness. A vessel capable of holding an ounce of water may be made of a grain of silver. In tenacity it surpasses gold, though it is inferior to iron, copper or platinum. A silver wire one-tenth of an inch in diameter will sustain a weight of twenty-five pounds. Native silver erystallizes in cubes and octahedrons, but is also more commonly found in irregular masses, sometimes of considerable size. In 1750 a mass of silver weighing 140 pounds was found in the mine at Himmelsfurst, in Saxony, and another equally as large in 1771. In 1478 a rich vein of silver ore was discovered at Schneeberg, in Saxony, and so large a mass of native metal was ent out that it served as a dining table for Duke Albert. who descended into the mine to visit it. When Hmelted it yielded 44,000 pounds of metal. Another mass of native silver, 620 pounds in weight, was
obtained from the Swedish mine at Konigsberg. Silver, which is much more extensively used for coin than gold, is always alloyed, it being in its pure state too soft to be durable. The alloy used in the silver coinage of England consists of 11.1 parts of pure silver and 9 parts of copper. A pound (troy weight) of the alloy is coined into 66 shillings, so that a money pound of 20 shillings contains 1,745.454 grains of standard silver of which 1.614.454 are pure metal. Silver for articles of domestic use, furniture and orna- ments is of about the same standard as that employed for money. Articles made of inferior metals are very generally in use. They are covered with a thin coating of silver, and are said to be plated. In the best kinds of plated goods made from silvered copper, the prominent edges, which from exposure to con- stant rubbing, would soon wear out, and thus show the copper, are made of solid silver. These parts are formed separately and put on afterwards with solder. Although a vast amount of skill has been exercised, and very beautiful artieles have been produced, but by the electrotyping process the coating of silver is more evenly applied, its adhesion is more perfect, and the finish of the surface more exactly resembles that of real plate. The brass dials of clocks, the faces of barometers and thermometers, and many similar articles, are silvered by rubbing them with a com- pound of chloride of silver, whiting and pearlash. Lunar eanstic, employed by surgeons for canterizing or, as it is called, burning away the diseased flesh in wounds, is nitrate of silver, a salt formed by dissolv- ing silver in nitrie aeid. It stains the skin and all animal matter indelibly blaek, and literally burns it. by the tendency of the salt to recover the metallic form by parting with its oxygen. Ten grains of lunar caustic dissolved in gumwater make an excel- lent marking ink for linen, which is never cffaced by washing. Crystallized nitrate of silver is extensively used in photography. Many thousands of ounces are required annually for this beautiful art. Two very dangerous explosive compounds, called fulmin- ating powders, are prepared from silver. One of them is so formidable that a carriage passing along the street, by shaking the room. has been known to explode it, and it often explodes spontaneously during the process of preparation.
COPPER.
This useful metal has been known from time almost immemorial. When pure it is of a reddish-brown color. Its specific gravity is 8,89: that is, it is nearly nine times as heavy as water. Both the smell and taste of this metal are excessively disagreeable. It is very malleable-next so in degree after gold and silver, and can be beaten out into extremely thin leaves. In duetility it ranks after gold, silver. plati- num and iron, while in tenacity it yields only to the latter. A copper wire one-tenth of an inch in diam- eter will sustain a weight of 385 pounds. Copper is the most sonorous of all metals, and is therefore
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employed for trumpets and many other musical instruments.
The alloys of copper are numerous and important. It forms a part of the gold and silver employed for coin, plate and innumerable articles, both of utility and ornament. Brass, however, is one of the most important of the alloys of copper. Brass is produced by cementing copper plates with calamine, an oxide of zine mixed with charcoal. The proportions in which the two metals are combined to form brass vary in different places-from twelve to twenty-five parts of zine to 100 parts of copper. The compositions known under the head of Dutch gold, pinehbeck, tombas, Prince Rupert's metal, and others, are only varieties of brass, differing in the proportions of the copper and zinc. An alloy of one part of tin with three of copper constitutes bell metal. When bell metal is used for making bells, zinc, antimony, and sometimes silver, are added to improve the sonorous- ness of the compound. The famous Corinthian brass of antiquity was an alloy of copper and several other metals. It is said to have been produced accident- ally, by the fusion together of various articles formed of these metals during the destruction by fire of the city of Corinth by the Romans.
Pliny states that vases made of this brass were considered more valuable than if made of gold on account of the beauty of the metal, and its fitness for chasing and sculpture, or other modes of engrav- ing. Swords and eutting instruments, among the ancients before iron was used for that purpose, were made of copper, alloyed with from one to five per eent. of tin. A mixture of two parts of copper with one of tin. form anextremely hard, fine, brittle alloy, admitting of an exquisite pollish, with a luster nearly equal to that of mercury. It is called spec- ulum metal, from its being employed for the reflec- tors of telescopes and similar optical purposes. The alloy generally contains a little zine, arsenic and sil- ver. It was known to the ancients, and used by them in making mirrors. The white copper or pack- fong of the Chinese, is by some persons supposed to be an alloy of copper. zinc, nickle and iron; the copper being one-half of the whole and the other metals in equal proportions.
Copper with about one-fourth of its weight of lead forms pot metal. It also contributes to the composition of pewter. Many of the Grecian and Roman coins were formed of an alloy of 100 parts of copper, 2 of lead, and 2 of tin, or with a larger pro- portion of the latter metals.
The compositions made in imitation of silver. called German silver, are alloys of copper of various kinds. Oxides of copper are soluble in most acids, and form salts, some of which are important in the arts. Blue vitriol is a sulphate of copper. It is employed in glass-staining, in dyeing, and occasion- ally in surgery. The fine blue color called " verditer" is prepared from the nitrate of copper. Verdigris is the acetate of copper, and is used in painting and dyeing. It is an active poison.
The uses of copper are almost numberless. The bottoms of ships are sheathed with it to protect the timber from sea worms. and facilitate the motion of the vessel by diminishing friction in the water. Large boilers for sugar works and breweries are made of copper, as are also a great variety of articles too numerous to mention.
Whenever a copper vessel is intended for the prep- aration of food, the surface ought to be covered with a coating of tin or silver, for copper is so easily cor- roded, or dissolved, by the acid contained in most articles of food, that highly poisonous salts are thus formed, which would have fatal effects if taken into the stomach. Accidents are perpetually oceurring from using eopper vessels, the tinning or plating of which has worn off. In Sweden the Government does not, for this reason, allow of any culinary vessel being made of copper.
Another most important use of copper, for which its softness and malleability particularly adapts it, is for engraving on, for multiplying copies of any design, by impressions being taken on paper from a copper plate, on which the subject has been cut in, or, as it is ealled, engraved. The copper for this purpose must be very pure, free from all defects and well polished in thin plates. Steel plates are now made use of for the same purpose, from their supe- rior durability. The process of engraving upon them are precisely the same as upon copper, only instead of nitrous acid a solution of corrosive subli- mate, or some other liquid of appropriate kind, is used in the process of etching. Copper is found in veins and beds, in granite, slate, limestone, and other rocks, accompanied by various ores of the metal, which are so numerous that a collection in Cornwall contains a thousand different kinds. One species of copper ore is of fine ornamental stone, called mala- chite. This is a carbonate of copper, the finest spec- imens of which come from Hungary and Siberia. It is also found in Australia.
IRON.
This is one of the most extensively diffused of all solid minerals, but, though existing in such abun- dance, this metal, in its natural state, is very unlike what we are hourly acenstomed to see it. It presents itself everywhere only as an earthy mass, resembling dirt, impure rust. Even when found in the mine with a metallic luster, it is far from pos- sessing those qualities which are necessary to fit it for the endless uses to which it is applied. When we consider that the art of making it, which eom- bined so many different processes, triumphs over so many obstacles, and in which fire and iron are em - ployed to subdue iron itself, dates from a period of the highest antiquity, even beyond the Deluge (Gen. 4:22), we are almost led to regard this admirable art as an inspiration, emanating immediately from that Divine Power which has bestowed this metal in such pro- fusion to supply our wants. Not only does iron in various states enter into the composition of most of -
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the compound minerals of which the crust of the earth is composed, but it forms a constituent part of many animal and vegetable substances; entering into the composition of the blood, and imparting shades of color to many a delicate flower. Iron when pure is of a bluish-white color and brilliant luster, its specific gravity being 7.8. It is lighter than most permanent metals, tin and zinc being the only abundant ores which surpass it in this respect. As regards malleability, it ranks after gold, silver, copper, platinum, lead and zine, iron being the eighth in order when these metals are arranged accord- ing to the degree in which they possess this quality. In ductility it is fourth, gold, silver, and platinum alone surpassing it. In tenacity it occupies the first place. An iron wire one-tenth of an inch in diameter will support a weight of 705 pounds, while a copper wire of the same diameter will support only 385 pounds. An iron rod, one inch in diameter, as formed at the iron works, will support seventeen and three quarters tons without breaking; and a rod the same size, forged into cable-chains, will sup- port nineteen tons; and an inch and a half rod, forty- four tons. An inch and a quarter rod. two feet six inches long, will sometimes stretch six inches, or twenty per cent., before it breaks.
It is remarkable that pure iron does not possess nor will it retain magnetic properties. To render these permanent it appears that the metal must be combined with either carbon, sulphur, or phosphorus, and especially the former.
In St. Domingo Island there is an immense quan- tity of magnetic iron, the hill over which it lies scattered being called Loadstone Mountain. The hill rises about sixty feet above the Savanna, and is crowned on its summit by a magnificent palm tree. From north to south it extends 600 feet, its western side being bathed by the river Yuva. Its northern part is covered with rugged black rocks of all sizes, and every one of them more or less magnetic.
The effect of these masses of ore upon magnetic needles is almost incredible. When placed near the ground they whirled round with great rapidity before ultimately settling with their north poles point- ing to the south. When placed on some of the blocks the motions were less violent, but the poles were invariably reversed. This ore has been exam- ined by a German mineralogist, who considered it equal to the best of Dannemora, in Sweden. But what can be done with it? Tropical lassitude bas tied the arms of industry. Metallic iron is found native only in small quantities; but a remarkable phenomenon connected with this metal is that masses ofit, alloyed with nickle and other substances, have, at different times, fallen from the atmos- pbere on earth. These matters are called meteorites. The records of such events are numerous, from the remotest ages, and independently of the occur- rence of the phenomena being absolutely witnessed, masses of iron have been found on the surface, in
various parts of the earth, which, from their local- ity and in their chemical constitution, differing from that of any terrestrial mineral, could only be derived from such a source. It is believed, as the probable explanation of the origin of the singular produc- tions, that they are fragments of some planetary body of our system which has been destroyed, and these portions, as projected into space, have accidentally come within the sphere of the earth's attraction, and consequently fallen upon its surface. Of course no positive knowledge can ever be gained of their origin, although the fact of their falling from the atmosphere is placed beyond a doubt.
A small portion of iron combined with carbon con- stitutes the valuable natural production, plumbago, commonly though very improperly called black lead. This ore is found in France, Spain, Germany and other parts of the world. The most valuable mine of the mineral is, however, at Barrowdale, in Cumberland, England. This is situated at the head of a valley, where the ore is found in nodules imbedded at regular intervals in the branching veins of gray feldspar porphyry, the smaller ramifications appearing in some places at the surface. It is scarcely necessary to say that the chief use of what is termed "pure Cumberland lead" is for making the best kind of pencils. The principal manufactory for these is at Keswick, near to the spot whence the mineral is proenred. In one establishment at Keswick it is stated that from 1,500 to 1,600 dozen pencils are made daily. Inferior kinds of plumbago. being mixed with sulphur, are used for making cheap pencils. It is also employed to diminish friction in machinery, and in the formation of crucibles for chemical purposes.
The uses and purposes of iron are innumerable; we may keep multiplying them for almost an indefi- nite space of time without even giving a very perfect result. Could it be possible to survey the bottom of the great deep, we should there find it connecting shore to shore and island to island. It has brought the east and west to kiss each other. and the north and south to shake hands together. Throughout the world there is no doubt but what we could count the miles of railroad by the million, and locomotives by the thousand. The mammoth iron ships that sail on the bosom of the waters are numerous, besides the ponderous machinery erected almost all over the world for factory and mining purposes. So far back as 1857 the little island of Great Britain exported iron in that year to the declared value of £22,994,- 671. This, of course, includes machinery and manu- factured articles, as well as pig iron, castings, rails, bars, plates, etc. Reduced to an equivalent in pig-iron, the exports are equal in quantity to 2 261,000 tons. There is a curious fact connected with the iron works of Britain worth mentioning. The reduction of the ores was formerly etfected by means of wood, and the consumption was so great that an Act of Parlia- ment was passed in 1531 restraining its use. Soon
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afterwards Lord Dudley discovered that coal was equally efficient, and obtained a monopoly of its employment for the purpose, and so highly was this discovery appreciated, that this nobleman's patent was expressly excluded from the Act of Parliament passed in 1623 which abolished most of those justly odious privileges. But though this invention has proved invaluable to the country. Lord Dudley derived but little advantage from it. for his iron works were destroyed by a deluded mob, and it was not till a century afterwards that bis plan was gen- erally adopted, in consequence of the increasing alarm at the enormous consumption of wood at the iron furnaces.
TIN
Appears to have been one ef the earliest discovered metals, and is mentioned repeatedly in the Mosaic writings. That the Phrenicians came to Britain for tin is generally believed, and it is certain that the metal was obtained from Cornwall before the time of Herodotus All tin is stamped, and pays a duty to the Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall-a custom which has existed since the time of the Normans. In speaking of Cornwall. this country is richer in the ore than any other known part of the world, though the metal obtained from Malaeca. especially from the small island of Banca, is superior in quality to English tin. Tin is also found at other places in the East, as well as in America, Spain, France, Saxony, Bohemia and Germany. Tin is of a brilliant white color, with a specific gravity of 7.3. it being rather more than seven times heavier than water. In hardness it surpasses lead, but is inferior to gold. It is very malleable. and may be beaten out into leaves only one one-thousandth of an inch thick, termed tin foil. but it might be reduced to half that thickness if required. In duetility it is only superior to lead. A wire one-tenth of an inch in diameter will support a weight of forty-seven pounds. Tin unites with many metals and forms valuable alloys Ten or twelve parts of tin, with eighty-eight or ninety parts of copper, forms the bronze of the ancients, used for weapons, knives, etc .; and in modern time for can non. The same metals, combined in the proportion of one-fifth of tin to four- fifths, by weight, of copper. or of one-third of the former to two-thirds of the latter. form one species of bell-metal. Brass, spelter. and even lead or silver, are sometimes added in vari- ous proportions, according to the fancy of the founder. The alloy of which the Chinese make their gongs is composed of eighty parts of copper to twenty of tin. One part of tin with two of copper. or. according to some other authorities, thirty-two of copper, fifteen to sixteen of tin. with one part of brass, one of arsenic, and one of silver form the best. speculum metal for reflecting telescopes
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