Gold, Metal of the Gods and Mere Mortals - Part II - CED Blog Claudia Endler Designs

August 1, 2005

AUGUST 2005 NEWSLETTER
“August creates as she slumbers, replete and satisfied.” – Joseph Wood Krutch

NEW “JEWEL”

“Intense pink�wear it, while temperatures are on the rise.” – ce

Our marquis ring featured as a wedding ring when set with a diamond, transforms when set with eye-popping colors. Funny what a little bit of color can do.

CED – News & Events

Events
August 13-22 – The Claudia Endler Design studio will be closed. We will be back August 23rd to assist you with all your jewelry needs

AUGUST’S FEATURE: Gold, Metal of the Gods and Mere Mortals – Part II

A History of Gold

Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey” make mention of gold as the glory of the immortals and a sign of wealth among ordinary humans.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Gold is the most malleable and ductile. It is so malleable that a goldsmith can hammer one ounce of gold into a thin translucent wafer covering more than 100 square feet only five millionths of an inch thick. It would be so thin that 1,000 sheets would be needed to make up the thickness of one newspaper page. It is amazingly ductible. One ounce of gold can be drawn into a wire 50 miles long.
Gold is also one of the heaviest metals known. It has a specific gravity of 19.3, which means it weighs 19.3 times as much as an equal volume of water. Therefore, one cubic foot of gold weighs more than half a ton.

SCARCITY

The world’s holdings of gold, accumulated during all recorded history to the present, are only about 120,000 metric tons. This would create a cube 60 feet by 60 feet by 60 feet, which is equivalent to the approximate volume of 12 3-room homes.
The average increase in the world’s gold supply is a mere 2,000 tons per year – versus 10,500 tons of American steel per hour. Gold is indeed very, very rare.

We saw it with our own eyes. In visiting the exhibit of Tutankamun at the LACMA, the Egyptian gold that was buried more than 3000 years ago is still wonderfully lustrous. The Egyptians believed that to be buried in gold made their kings more “godlike”, for gold was the flesh of the gods.

OTHER USES OF GOLD: Did you know?

In 1927, a medical study in France proves gold to be valuable in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis
In the 1930’s, Western Electric finds universal use for all switching contacts for AT&T telecommunications equipment.
The first transistor used gold contacts.
The laser is invented using gold-coated mirrors to maximize infrared reflection.
Intel introduces a microchip with 1,024 transistors connected by gold circuits.
For the Apollo 11 moon landing, gold-coated visors protect the astronauts’ eyes from searing sunlight on the moon.
The charged coupled device is invented. It uses gold to collect electrons generated by light. Eventually it will be used in hundreds of devices, including video cameras.
Amersham Corporation of Illinois introduced the colloidal gold marker system. Tiny spheres of gold are used in health research laboratories worldwide to mark or tag specific proteins to reveal their function in the human body for the treatment of disease.
Gold-coated compact discs are introduced in 1986
Airbags are introduced for cars, using gold contacts for reliability.
The Mars Global Surveyor is launched with an on-board gold-coated parabolic telescope-mirror that will generate a detailed map of the entire Martian surface over a two-year period.
In 2000, Astronomers at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii use the giant gold-coated mirrors of the observatory’s twin telescopes to produce the most detailed images of Neptune and Uranus ever captured.

Next time, we will discuss Gold Carat weights and alloys.

Resources: www.gold-eagle.com, www.goldhistory.com

FROM ONE OF OUR CLIENTS
I am LOVING the ring. Love, love, love it. – Nicole L.

THE WAY OF CHIC: Being well groomed is chic.

STYLE RECOGNITION

The owner and founder of Karlée Artist Management, Maleeza Korley, has cultivated an experienced team of creative image experts to supply their high-profile clientele (like Halle Berry, Physicians Formula, Apple Computers and Nike) with the most excellent hair, makeup, fashion and body art. Her goal and motto is to provide “Style beyond the call of Beauty” where celebrities, photographers, magazines, ad agencies, film producers and event planners can find the right artist for their projects. We are lucky enough to have her team of artists work their magic on the models that grace the pages of our website. Visit www.karleeartist.com for more information.

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