ALL THE GOLD IN THE WORLD.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3230, 26 June 1879, Page 3

ALL THE GOLD IN THE WORLD.

The Philadelphia Ledger Rives the following estimate of the gold in the world •'—The bulk of gold in the world steadily increases, though the amount is but roughly approximated. Ten' years ago it was estimated at about 5,950,000,000 dollars in value. It must be greatly larger now, though we have no fixed data for approximating the amount. But it may be. of interest to see what the bulk of the smaller sum ten years ajro would be if it were all melted down and run together. . Pure gold is more than nineteen limes as heavy as water, and a cubic foot of water weighs lOOOozs avoirdupois. A cubic foot of gold would weigh, then, over ,19>000ozs. avoirdupois, and every such ounce of fine gold is worth (according to our coinage) somewhat more than eighteen dollars-— so that the whole: cubic foot of gold would be worth a little more than a third of a million dollars. A cubic yard of s^ lid gold would be worth twenty-seven times as much as that, or over, 9,000,000 dollars; and 660 cubic yards wou'd contain somewhat more than the 5,950,000,000 dollars of gold in the world ten,years ago. These 660 cubic yards,would be contained within a room > about 15 feet high, 24 feet wide, and 48 feet long ; say, a good-sized parlour oi* a Btnre -^ oderate size. " But," srrys ojae ,old is so very malleable '''Hi smnli bulk of it would gild ov iolo tvrth.", But he either ov. i _103 the malleability of gold, or, mor ''i v. underestimates the size of the <■ "it tales 1,280,000 leaves bf the j thi gold foil to make an inch in 'thick;., vs, or about 15,333,000 to make a ' foot, tie. 46,000,000 -to a yard. A cubic yard of gold, then, could be beaten out so as to cover 48,000.000 square' yards, somewhat less than 10,000 acres, for there are 4810 square yards to the acre. Then, as there are 6do acres to the squareimile, the whole 600 cubic yards of gold could be beaten out so as to cover about 10,000 square miles —less than the extent of Vermont, aad a little more than a fifth of either New York or Pennsylvania. \