Evening star., 1938-08-28
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Star Stan Correspondent


LONDON (By MaiD Solid gold
evening gowns, which will last for
ever, light as silk. cheaper than the
costlier fabrics now sold in fashion,
able stores, are made possible by a
discovery Just reported by Prof.
Charles 8. Gibson of the staff of Guys
Hospital here
This discovery. by which gossamer
fabrics can be covered with film of
gold less than ten-thousandth of an
inch thick, came in the course of re-
search to find compounds of gold with
organic molecules for the treatment of
arthritis. The fabric simply is dipped
In one of these compounds with the
JaW-breaking name OF trialkylphos-
phineeaurous halide, which breaks up
into its constituent parts when
slightly heated, the thin Aim Of gold
being deposited on the fabric like
dye
At present prices of gold, Prof. Glib
son calculated. the process. when off,
cially carried out, should produce the
gold fabric at cost of about $3.50
a yard. About yards of material
should be required for a dress The
garment would be of gold inside and
out. and the total amount OF the pre-
cious metal used would be less in bulk
than a l0-cent piece. The actual
fabric used, silk or cotton. could be
so thin that it would not count at all,
so that for all practical purposes the
gown would be of pure gold.
Just Replate New Gown.
But, Prof. Gibson stresses, the first
investment would be essentially the
last. Like all other fabrics, this would
wear in places. and various patterns
Of gowns would go out of style All
the owner need do is send the gown
to a gold platter, have the precious
metal melted up and recombined with
the requisite organic molecules, and
redeposited on another gown cut
according to the latest fashion.
Cloth of-gold was the symbol of ex-
treme luxury in the Middle Ages, but
1t consisted of covering fabrics with
thin, hammered-out sheets of gold
leaf, and was extraordinarily expen-
slve, hot, heavy and cumbersome.
Hitherto the deposition Of fine films
of the precious metal on most mate
rials. including fabrics, has been tech
nlcally impossible. 1t has involved
mixing the gold in some chemical
compound, and then heating this until
1t became vapor. Then the gold
would dlstill out as a film on the sur
face of solid. This involved working
at temperatures of more than 800 de-
grees centigrade, which would destroy
most materials. With the present
process the gold film is deposited
while the compound still is liquid,
involving only ordinary temperatures.
Only the Beginning.
Gold dresses are only the beginning.
DR.. Gibson has on display gold goblets,
ordinary glasses covered with the thin
hlm which are indistinguishable from
Roblets made of the solid metal 1t
makes possible a complete gold dinner
service for any family-at least one
that looks so much like solid gold that
an inquisitive guest would have to
scrape with his pocket knife to tell
the difference. Any cocktail room
probably can afford to serve its patrons
in gold glasses, II the process ever is
taken up on a commercial scale. In
fact, the process is so cheap that for
q time gold ash trays were being dis
tributed as souvenirs
Thus far the discoverer and his
associates have specialized on golden
mirrors. These were the extreme SYM
Dol Of luxury in ancient Greece. One
Of them was the proudest possession
OF the beautiful Helen when she fled
from Troy. In Egypt they we're the
most cherished objects in the toilet
cabinets Of the allegedly divine queens
Cleopatra sported one Such a mirror
was considered a symbol of the sun,
the Egyptian god from who the queens
supposedly were descended. The
naughty beauty of the Nile painted
here eyebrows and lips by the sup
posed reflection from the shining
countenance of her ancestor.
None of these mirrors actually has
been preserved, but there is every rea-
son to believe, Prof. Gibson says, that
they were rather crude-either heavy,
highly polished disks of gold itself or
disks covered with gold leaf They
were so expensive that after the days
Of antiquity they fell out of style even
with the very wealthy.
Now one can be had as cheap, or
even cheaper. than the common silver
mirror Almost every girl can afford
one. the discoverers say. if such mir
roys ever are put on the market Gold
forks knives and spoons are other
imminent possibilities.
The medieval alchemist who sought
TO turn the baser metals to gold would
think his dreams fulfilled watching
one of the commoner experiments Of
Dr. Gibson and his associates. Glass
tubes yard in length change before
the eyes in about half an hour into
apparent rods of solid gold. The
precious metal is impervious to light
so that the solid gold appearance is
attained. almost regardless of the
thickness of the deposited film.
In the utility of their discovery as