Horizons Online Edition

Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: Diversions

Media Credit: jmorr17 A miner finds gold in the American River in Coloma, California.

BusinessDay financial news reported that, as of Jan. 28, 2010, the price of gold had risen as high as $1,095.95 an ounce in earlier trading. 

Since recorded history, gold has been the symbol of wealth and prosperity. Since biblical times gold has been the basis for monetary exchanges for rich and poor. Gold is the reason people do crazy things.

Supreme sacrifices and the human life have paved the road for empires built and dynasties shattered in the name of gold. King Tutankhamun, who died in 1324 B.C.E. , was discovered in 1922 entombed in a stone sarcophagus containing three gold coffins, one of which weighed 296 pounds. The boy king's death mask is 24 pounds of pure gold, and has been declared a national treasure of Egypt.

Pure gold is 24 karat and very soft. An ounce of gold can be pounded into a delicate 300 square-foot sheet and gold leaf can be worked enough to become translucent. This translucency allows it to be used in many unusual ways, such as a de-icing device for aircraft. When very thinly applied to cockpit windows, gold can stop ice from initially forming. Electricity is passed through the gold sheet to further prevent icing in low temperatures and humidity.

Gold is used for the protective coating on satellites, in the protective faceplates in thermal protection suits and astronaut helmets, and in aircraft that require electromagnetic shielding.

Gold is also used in medicine, industry, research, dentistry, electronics, photography, and even some luxury foods that have gold flakes as an ingredient. Gold has been used in the treatment of cancer and the medical community has injectable gold for the relief of rheumatoid arthritis and tuberculosis.

However, the main attraction of gold is the money it can place in your pocket.

In 1848 James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The California gold rush was on, and in the next seven years 300,000 people flooded the area in search of their destiny. Fortunes were made and hearts were broken in the ensuing years, but all the gold has not yet been found; it is still out there for the adventurous seeker. Marshall, who discovered the first gold nugget at the Mother Lode, ironically died a reclusive pauper. Interestingly enough, Marshall's great-grandfather was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

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