I thought I should post something relaxing on gold.
So, here you go — weird historical, scientific and everyday facts about gold.
See more weird facts about gold here.
Many of these are coming from Russian sources not available in English search engines — enjoy!
Weird historical facts about gold
1
Greeks saw gold as the union of sunlight and water. I would say it’s more like a union of sunlight and earth 😉
2
In movies, sailors are shown with gold rings in their ears. Sailors actually did wear rings in real life, in older days.
However, they did not do that to look cool, quite the opposite.
In case of a shipwreck and their body ended up on the shore, the ring served as a payment for their burial – yeah, fun.
3
In 1599, a Spanish governor in Ecuador made people of Jivaro tribe pay really high taxes. They didn’t like this.
As a result the governor was overthrown. Moreover, he was executed – melted gold was poured into his mouth. I am sure they took it out after.
Also, look up what Jivaro natives are known for. According to some 2009 evidence they are not done with this, even though it’s illegal. Don’t look it up if you think you are weak-hearted.
4
The largest thing ever made from gold weighed 250 tons.
It was a statue of a goddess – sitting on the throne, surrounded by lions. Today, no one knows where that goddess is.
5
Ancient Egyptians thought that gold was the flesh of gods. Especially that of Ra, god of the Sun.
6
In 14th century, one of the remedies for bubonic plague was molten gold with emeralds mixed into it. When cooled the remedy looked similar to a chocolate chip cookie, I guess.
I wonder how the remedy was administered…
7
In old times, those who mined gold were people of low class, often slaves.
On the other hand, those who made jewellery and other valuable objects from gold were highly respected – to the points of being regarded as saints!
8
Incas called gold “tears of the sun” – a beautiful metaphor.
For Incas gold didn’t possess any financial value. Instead, they looked at gold as a holy material which they used for sacrifices!
Weird scientific and everyday facts about gold
Little suns having fun playing with the big Sun
9
In 1940, a Hungarian chemist saved Nobel prizes (made out of gold) of two German chemists from Nazis. (Nazis were busy confiscating gold at the time).
He dissolved the prizes in nitrohydrochloric acid. The prizes were restored after the war.
10
Majority of metals no matter how you heat them become soft and eventually melt.
Gold has an opposite behavior. If you heat gold really fast it becomes very durable and hard. However, this state is short-lived and thus the property cannot be applied.
11
Around the world there is more steel produced per hour than there was ever gold mined by humanity.
12
From 1 gram of gold you can make a thread that is 3 kilometers long. This thread is so flexible that you can use it to stitch your jeans.
13
Some plants can take up gold from the soil. Corn is one of them.
Tiny gold particles can be found in corn stalks when analyzing their ash.
14
Indian housewives owe more than 11% of all gold mined by humanity.
They wear it all the time — a lot of it!
15
In Dubai, there are vending machines that dispense gold bars.
Well, I’d say gold bars are way more useful than chocolate bars with health-destroying ingredients.
16
Ice-cream tasters (nice-sounding job, ha?) use a gold-plated spoon.
Gold-plated spoons eliminate all kinds of random flavors (unlike wooden and even silver spoons).
That’s it — should be a good dose of facts for the day 🙂
♣ Start acquiring gold now ♣
Main references:
https://interesnosti.com/1114539233507281618/25-neveroyatnyh-faktov-o-zolote-kotorye-mogut-vas-porazit/
https://vmirechudes.com/maloizvestnye-i-ochen-interesnye-fakty-o-zolote/
http://klikabol.com/2016/01/25-udivitelnyh-faktov-o-zolote-pro-kotorye-vy-ne-znali.html
https://tvoi-uvelirr.ru/20-samyx-interesnyx-faktov-o-zolote-2/
https://realfacts.ru/index.php?newsid=192
http://webfacts.ru/interesnye-facty/raznoe/interesnye-fakty-o-zolote-16-faktov.html
https://www.google.ca/search?q=%E2%80%9Ctears+of+the+sun