WHY GOLD IS A SCARCE METAL.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2772, 10 February 1882, Page 2

WHY GOLD IS A SCARCE METAL.

Gold and silver are essentially the " precious metals” from the mere fact of them being rare. The scarcity of gold is certainly the chief cause of its value. But can it be explained why gold is so rare ? According to Dr Suess it is because gold is one of the heaviest metals. Three metals are noted for tbeirextreme density—iridium, platinum and gold. Their weight compared to water as a unit is represented by the following figureslridium, 22.23; platinum, 21.51; gold, 19.253. With ; the exception of that strange and : also rare metal, mercury, the density! of which is 13.9 gold and platinum weigh more than any other metals; for as an instance, lead reaches 11.35, silver 10.47, bismuth 9 82, copper, 8,80, nickel 8.27, and iron only 7.80. Is there a connection of cause and effect between these two facts, that gold is a rare metal and, at the same time, one of the heaviest that exists ? One would be inclined to think that there is, if one admits that the earth was first in a gaseous, and then in a liquid state. In this case the heaviest matters must have occupied the centre of the globe in a melting condition. If it be true that our whole planetary system has been formed from matter, which constituted in the beginning an immense nebula, it follows that the planets the nearest the centre must be the heaviest. These ideas were brought forward by the great German philosopher, Kant, about the middle of last century, and have been from time to time referred to since. “The great weight, of platinum and gold,” says a German naturalist, Petzholdt, •“ is the reason for these metals being so scarce on the surface of the globe, for the greater quantity of them is contained in the still liquid kernel of the earth, there shielded from men’s greediness." Some observations that have been made help to support these ideas. The spectrum analysis reveals no gold in the etia ; we may therefore bonclnde that it is quite in the centre, hidden from view by other lighter bodies in a gaseous state forming the atmosphere. The planets may be divided according to their weight into two groups. The planets in the interior of the circle of asteriods are Comparatively light. Mercury, nearest to the sun, Weighs almost seven times as much as: water; Venus, the Earth, and Mars, five times as much while Jupiter weighs barely as milch as water ; Saturn, 0.73 andJUranus 0.84, therefore less than water. The density of Neptune, which has not been quite accurately determined, is atr all events very trifling. So we see that in our planetary system the heaviest bodies are nearest to the centre, and this leads us to assume that the same distribution of matter will be found in each planet. As the rocks forming the surface of our globe weigh on an average 2£ times as much as water —limestone 2.6 to 2.8, granite and gneiss 2.54 to 7, and lava orhasalt 2.7 to 3—and as on the other hand, the specific gravity of the globe is 5, we are necessarily led to conclude that the interior must be composed of heavy matter, far exceeding in weight the earth’s average of 5. The existence of gold in the central strata of our globe appears, therefore, very probable.—M. Emile de Laveleye, in the “ Ninteenth Century.”