The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1894-04-10

Causes That Tend % Curtaii thr Watid'u
supply ~ the Precious Metal.
The tive most eminent living writer's on
the precious metals, Sues and soetbetr
have published a very alarming statement
90 the effect that the total amount of gold
dug out Of the earth annually aufoes only
20 supply the present demand for that val
liable substance for use Ia the arts Not
a bit Of the new product Of the mines Is
available for coinage. Trinhct use aud
waste In manufacture exhaust the whole
yield. n this IL correct, then gold must
vanish from circulation before long, because
the output Of the gold mines Of the world
Is diminishing rather than increasing, and
there are few fields left 10 explore But
Uncle Sans metallurgists say that It is
not 50. The writers quoted fail 20 consider
the fact that the gold employed In the arts
is utilized over and over again. IL goes
through sort 81 cycle.
Articles Of jewelry often disappear, but
are seldom lost. When, through accident,
they pass out Of the possession Of the we'll
TO do, they go 10 tho poor and sharp eyed,
who sell them or pawn them. Some jewell
~ is lost by fire and some in the sea- and
these losses are absolute and hopeless, but
jewelry otherwise h certain, practically
all Of IL, 10 find its way sooner or later 20
the pawnshopz or into the hands OF dealers
in old gold Thus IL is melted up evcntu-
ally and reappears agAin in other shapes
This is what Is termed the "invisible sup
ply" Of that metal.
There are a number OF unavoidable
causes Of Ices of gold The first and most
important of these Is by abrasion. Jewel
ny loses much weight in That way, espe-
cially rings, which are usually ~ carat
nd d
less, but still considerably from wear. All
gold leaf is "A tota, loss 10 the gold stock
Of the world. Where used for decorative
purposes IL is never recovered. II IL not
employed for filing teeth nearly so much
as formerly, porous gold" being substi-
uuted But, OF course, the gold utilized
for teeth is n total loss, and in the aggre-
gate IL is enormous. III il be supposed
that the average dweller in cities of this
country has 80 cents worth OF gold in his
or her mouth, which is placing the figure
very low, IL will be seen how great is the
loss in this form Each succeeding gen
Grafton takes so many millions of dollars
worth of the metal from the worlds stock
in this way.
Some gold Is lost in remelting, though
all possible means are taken to reduce IL to
the lowest possible figure. Not only are
the floors swept and the dirt treated for
the recovery Of the yellow substance, but
the wooden plAnks are burned eventually
with the same object. Even the shoes of
each man who works with the metal are
subjected to the chemistry OF fire, yielding
a small button" OF the precious material.
At Tinany's work shop in New York each
artisan engaged in polishing gold stands
in front Of a big funnel, with n wide
mouth, which has a strong suction draft
This draft takes in all dust and floating
particles from the air. 1t swallows the
filaments ground from the buffing wheels,
and these, with whatever else has been
caught, are deposited in receptacle, form
ing sort OF felt. This felt is scraped
out, pressed into bricks and burned, being
thus made to yield the gold it contains.
Incidentally the workmen get pure air
Washington Star.