Gold is often
considered serious business. One always looks at it from the perspective of
investment, bullion and as a commodity whose price fluctuations are constantly
monitored. But there are some lesser known and interesting facts about this
glistening metal. The Jewel Affair pens down a few of these exciting facts for
its readers.
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1. Arthritis is a
common problem nowadays but it has a unique treatment wherein our good old gold
is chemically liquified and injected into the muscles of thousands of
rheumatoid arthritis victims in the U.S., and it is said that the treatment is
successful in seven out of ten cases.
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| LIQUID GOLD |
2. We all know
about the physical properties of gold and one of its most important
property is that it is malleable, which means it can be hammered into sheets.
But did you know that it can be hammered into sheets so thin that an inch high
pile of gold sheets would contain more than 2,00,000 separate sheets.
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| GOLD SHEETS |
3. Ever heard of a
gold vending machine? Yes, its surprising but true! The world’s first gold
vending machine was installed in Abu Dhabi in the year 2010. It has been placed
in hotel Emirates Palace and it dispenses 320 items made of gold including bars
and coins. The machine is itself covered in 24K gold.
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| GOLD VENDING MACHINE |
4. Gold nugget is a
single big chunk of gold which is unearthed in the mining process. The "Welcome
Stranger," the largest gold nugget ever recorded, was found in Victoria,
Australia, in 1869. It weighed 78 kilograms (about 172 pounds). When it was
melted down, it produced 71 kilograms (156 pounds) of pure gold.
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| WELCOME STRANGER |
5. India is the
biggest consumer of gold and recently it regained its top position from China
as the biggest overall consumer of gold in the first nine months this year with
a total consumption of 642 tonnes, a survey said. Wonder why is our country
called poor?
6. In every cubic
mile of sea water there is 25 tons of gold! That’s a total of about 10 billion
tons of gold in the oceans; however, there’s no known way to economically
recover it.
7. Nearly all of
the gold on Earth came from meteorites that bombarded the planet over 4 billion
years ago for over 200 million years. That’s a lot of gold!
8. Numbers show the
world pours more steel in one hour than it has poured gold since the beginning
of recorded history. If we think about it the reverse, compare all that steel
to the total amount of gold we’ve mined since its discovery, and the gold would
only fill up roughly three Olympic-sized swimming pools.
9. Gold isn’t just
for jewellery and pretty clothes. Gold is used in window glass and astronaut
helmets to reflect infrared rays while allowing the sunlight to pass through
and keeping it cool.
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| GOLD USED IN WINDOW GLASSES |
10. Ayurveda also
uses gold to treat various ailments like tuberculosis, stomach disorders,
infertility and many more. Usually gold is used in the form of ash and is mixed
with other herbs to create medicines.
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| GOLD USED IN AYURVEDA |
Gold is an
extremely versatile metal. Its not only meant for investment and adornment but
for various other industrial and medical purposes. So lets look at the brighter
side of gold and make it an integral part of our lives!
