The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1894-04-14
HOW GOLD is LOST.
Various Ways in Which the Precious
Metal Disappears from Use.

The two most eminent living writ
RS on the precious metals, Suess and
'Oetbeer, have recently published
rery alarming statement. 1t is to
he effect that the total amount Of
gold dug out OF the earth annually
sufiices only 10 supply the present
demand for the valuable substance
for Use i'm the arts. Not bit of the
new product of the mines is available
Tor coinage. Trinket use and waste
in manufacture exhaust the whole
Weld. If this is correct, then gold
must vanish from circulation before
!ong, because the output Of the gold
mines Of the world is diminishing
rather than increasing, and there are
ew fields left to explore. But Unle
sam : metallurgiSts say that it is not
80. The writer's quoted fail to con-
Iider the fact that the gold employed
in the arts is utilized over and over
again. 1t goes through a sort of
'ycle.
Articles Of jewelry often disappear,
but are seldom lost. When through
accident they pass out Of the posses
sion OF the well-to-do, they 90 to the
poor and sharp-eyed, who sell them
Or pawn them. Some jewelry is lost
by fire and some in the stxl, and these
losses are absolute and hopeless;
but jewelry otherwise is certain,
practically all of it, to find its way
sooner or later to the pawnshops or
into the hands Of dealers in old gold.
4 nI nt,,a nd
-eappears again in other shapes.
This is what is termed the invisible
supply" of the metal.
There are number of unavoidable
"auses Of loss Of gold The first and
most important Of these is by abra-
sion. Jewelry loses much weight in
that way, especially rings, which are
usually 1S-cnrat, and are worn rap
idly. Coins suffer much less, but
still considerably from wear. All
gold leaf is a total loss to the gold
stock Of the world. Where used for
decorative purposes it is never recov-
red. 1t is not employed for filling
teeth nearly so much as formerly,
porous gold" being substituted.
But, Of course, the gold utilized for
teeth is a total loss, and in the aggre-
gate it is enormous. If il be sup
posed that the average dweller in
cities in this country has 80 cents
worth of gold in his or her mouth,
which is placing the figure very low,
it will be seen how great Is the waste
n this form. Each succeeding gen.
ration takes so many millions OF
lolars worth Of the metal from the
worlds stock in this way.
Some gold is lost in remelting,
though all possible means are taken
10 reduce it to the lowest possible
figure. Not only are the tioors swept
and the dirt treated for the recovery
If 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 chem
istrv Of fire, yielding "a small but
ton" OF the precious material. At
riffany's workshop in New York each
artisan engaged in polishing gold.
stands in front Of big funnel, with
a 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, forming
sort OF felt. This felt is >craped
out. pressed into bricks and burned,
being thus made to yield the gold IL
contains. Incidentally. the work
men get pure air. - Washington
star