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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842 Excerpt:...gold preserves itself best, and entire, without rust or dirt, in water, the earth, dung, and sepulchres, and that throughout all ages. There are medals of it in being which have been struck above two thousand years, which seem just come from the workman's hands. It is observed, that gold resists the impressions and corrosion of salt and vinegar, which melt and subdue all other matter.4 1 Machines to support those canals made ofboard. 1 Plin. L xxxiii. c. S3. Strabo makes the same remark, and gives the reason for this etfect.--Palea facilius liquefit aurum; quia flarama mollis cum sit, proportionem habet temperatum ad id quod cedit et facile funditur carbo autem multem absumit, mmis nans sua vehementia et elerans.--Strab. 1. iii. p. 146. am contra salis et.accti succos, domitores rerum, conlantia.--Plin. There is no metal which extends better, nor divides into so great a number of particles of different kinds. An ounce of gold, for instance, will form seven hundred and fifty leaves, each leaf of four inches square and upwards. What Pliny says here is certainly very wonderful; but we shall presently see, that our modern artificers have carried their skill much farther than the ancients in this, as well as many other pointn. In fine, gold will admit to be spun and wove like wool into any form. It may be worked even without wool, or silk, or with both. The first of the Tarquins triumphed in a vest of cloth made of gold; and Agrippina, the mother of Nero, when the emperor Claudius her husband gave the people the representation of a sea fight, appeared at it in a long robe made entirely of gold wire, without any mixture whatsoever. Wha» is related of the extreme smallness of gold and silver, when reduced into wire, would seem incredible, if not confirmed by...