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The Diverse Uses of Gold
Out of all the minerals that can be found and mined in the earth, there is not any that is quite equal or special as gold. The many things that gold can be used for is taken from a diverse amount of spectacular properties. Gold is able to electricity, does not dull, is very uncomplicated to work, can be drawn into wire, can be hammered into thin sheets, alloys with a lot of other metals, can be melted and cast into very meticulous shapes, has a magnificent color and a shining luster to it. Gold is a metal that is not easy to forget about and it most definitely holds a special spot in the mind of humans all around the world who know its value and worth. During the time that the Spanish Conquistadors first came to the New World they were introduced to the native South Americans. These are two different cultures that had been separated by a very immense ocean, spoke different languages and lived in different ways. There was one thing though that was similar for both cultures though and that was the desire and admiration for gold. Gold was, as we have seen in history, in addition utilized for the most important objects during these times as well. All through the history of the world, nearly all of the established cultures have made use of gold as a symbol of beauty, power, purity and success. Gold until this very day holds an enormous amount of significance in our lives as it is used for wedding rings, money, all types of luxurious art forms, medals etc. and there just simply isn’t any other metal that holds so much power and admiration. The making of ornamental objects was most likely the primary use of gold over six thousand years ago. Gold can be found in its pure or raw state and is not difficult to work and there are some that believe that it was the first metal that was utilized by individuals in the past. Due to it’s deficiency (in comparison to the past), nowadays the gold that can be found is mined or recycled. Now most of the gold that is mined or recycled is used in the making of jewelry. Over seventy five percent of the gold that is used every year is used to manufacture jewelry.
The out of the ordinary properties that gold has is what has made it perfect for manufacturing of jewelry. The special properties that gold has are that it has a high luster, an attractive yellow color, is resistant to corrosion and can be drawn into wires, hammered down to sheets as well as cast into shapes. All of these are some of the properties that gold and which precisely make it easy to work into magnificent objects. One other very important feature about gold is that it is a traditional metal and only very important objects are made out of it. Pure gold is not hard enough to be able to stand up to the stress that a lot of jewelers need to apply to make jewelry therefore gold is alloyed with other metals like that of silver, copper and platinum as this helps to maintain its durability and therefore almost all the gold that is utilized in making jewelry is an allow of gold with another or other metals. The alloys of gold do not have as high a value per unit of weight as pure gold does. There is a standard of trade that is more commonly known as karatage that was established to allocate the gold content of the alloys. If you have a gold necklace or ring you will probably have noticed that it is marked with a number and a “K”. Pure gold is known to as 24 karat gold and is usually marked with “24K”. when an alloy that has a fifty percent of gold in it, it is more commonly known as 12 karat gold and would therefore be marked with “12K”. there is also 18 karat gold which contains a seventy five percent of gold, however in most cases gold that is has a higher karat than 18 is usually softer and more resistant to dulling, nonetheless, low karat jewelry is not as delicate but it is not as resistant to dulling. When gold is alloyed with other metals it causes the color to change. For instance, an alloy has seventy five percent of gold, sixteen percent of silver and nine percent of copper will bring about a yellow gold. White gold, on the other hand (which is very popular right now) consists of seventy five percent of gold, four percent of silver, four percent of copper and seventeen percent of palladium. There are in addition other alloys that will bring about different colors such as green, pink, peach color and black metals.
