The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-07
GOLD IN THE OCEAN.
QUANTITIES OF THE METAL WATT
ING TO BE GATHERED.

There Is -Four Cents worth of Gold
to Each Ton of Salt Wnter-EIec-
tricity May he Used to Extract II.
Schemes For Boring Into the
Earth to Get the Yellow Metal
There stored In Unlimited Quanti-
ties.
From the Philadelphia Times.
Washington. Aug. 29.-Now is the time
for some inventor to come forward with
a practicable process for separating gold
from sea water. 1t is the opportunity of
the age.
Washing the shores of the United States
is a fluid that is rich in goodrich enough
at all events, to fill all the treasures of
the world to overlooking IL only 1t could
be extracted economically. Chemists have
devised means for separating 1t, but they
cost too much. You see there is only
cents worth Of the yellow metal in each
ton of the water; that is the average,
though the percentage is greater in some
localities than in others. But that much
is enough to furnish results beyond the
dreams of avarice. when the proper pro-
cess ds discovered.
That it will be discovered eventually is
predicted with confidence by many able
chemists In single day millions of gall
Ions of sea water may be caused to flow
through properly arranged sluices, pass
ing over chemical compounds which will
pick up the gold and hold it. There is
scarcely a limit to the scale on which
such operations might be carried on. Aft
er being sufficiently saturated with the
precious metal, the chemical compounds
could be subjected to simple processes for
separating the gold. This is only one of
several plans suggested up to date. It is
thought not unlikely that electricity may
finally solve the problem.
The subject becomes exceedingly pictur-
esque when few figures are consulted.
All the seas of the world put together
would make a fluid mass comprising
2,250, 100000 cubic miles, and Weighing
1900, 600 600, 900 600 tons At 4 cents ton
this quantity Of water must contain $780,
| 900, 900, 900 100000 worth of gold. The entire
worlds stock at present Is $1,000, 900 900 in
coin and perhaps 81. 1000, 100000 worth of the
metal in other shapes. This total of $6,O00.-
| 100000 would form a cube twenty-five feet
on an edge. But the gold in the ocean
would furnish cubical block 1900 feet
| on an edge. This block, nearly six times
as high as the Washington monument
would contain $4,000. 100000 cubs feet of
the precious metal.
Sounds big, doesn't It? But II seems
| even larger when looked at from another
| point of view. Take that colossal cube
| of virgin gold, chop 1t up into pieces and
| distribute the fragments among all of the
| 1000, 900 human beings who inhabit the
| EARTH seeing that each man, woman and
| child gets exactly the same amount. As
| a result each Individual. regardless of sex,
\ Nraa-
more than $S5,000000. Everybody would
be a Vanderbilt, or at least, an Aston. But,
| of course, the market price of the yellow
| metal would drop with over-production,
| and so 1t is just as well that gold mining
| in the sea is restricted in It's possible de-
| velopment by natural conditions. Never
| theless, IT is asserted by competent au-
thorities that eventually the bulk of the
gold supply will be obtaiped from the
ocean and not from the land.
More problematical, yet perhaps not en-
| tirely hopeless, is the scheme for boring
| into the earth for gold. Unlimited quanti-
| ties of metal are known to be stored in
the bowels of the globe. waiting to be
| dragged forth by ingenious man. II II
| could be got at. whole cities might be
| built OF it, and blocks OF gold might take
| the place OF Belgian block paving or as
| phaltum. Romance, you think? Not bit
| of IL. Ask any competent geologist and
he will indorse the statement very
| promptly.
The gold possessed by mankind to-day
| has been picked out OF the crust OF the
| earth. Where did 1t come from7 Unques-
| tionably. from the inside OF the globe,
| every bit Of It, 1t wasotbrown up from the
| depths by volcanic action. Some of Il
| was disgorged together with masses Of
molten rock and lava, while In other cases
| II was carried upward In a chemical solu-
| ton with boiling water and deposited in
! crevices and crannies of the tortured
mountains, thus forming veins" Judg-
| ing merely from the amounts OF the yellow
metal cast up In this manner within nlur
| tied areas which are mined to-day, what
| vast stores OF It must lie hidden beneath
tho rocky shell OF the planet, beyond hui
| man reach!
But are they altogether beyond human
reach7 That Is a question worth consid-
ering II is risky 70 set limits on the pos
| siDie achievements of mans ingenuity,
| and, for all anybody can say with GER
| tainty. the day may arrive when he will
| lay hts hand upon these subterranean
| treasures. He Is ony separated from them
| by a few miles Of rock, which may be
pierced eventually, Notwithstanding the
seemingly insuperable difficulties which
are In the way BE II remembered that
the crust Of the planet on which we live
Is far less thick proportionately than the
shell Of a hens egg
Beneath the crust what? Ay, there's an
interesting question; There must be pler-
ty Of gold but there are other metals
also--moBtly iron In all likelihood. Satls-
flctcry reasons exist for believing thar
the earth Is largely made up or iron. One
Of them IS found in the weight OF th>
planet. The average weight Of its crdst
IS two and three-sourths mes as great
as that Of water, bulk for bulk But
the entire globe weighs Ave and half
times as much as a ball OF water Of equal
size. In other words, the surface material
~ only half as heavy as the average Of
the whole earth.
That is a striking fact when you come to
think OF e. II means that the inside OF
tho earth Is vastly heavier than the OUT
side. II you could dig down TO the very
core of the globe, you would find there
an agglomeration Of substances weigh
ing perhaps eleven times as much as
water. At the center .Ae density Is great
est because gravity pulls everything from