Method of preparing and beating GOLD. They first melt a quantity of pure gold, and form it into an ingot: this they reduce, by forging, into a plate about the thickness of a sheet of paper; which done, they cut the plate into little pieces about an inch square, and lay them in the first or smallest mould to begin to stretch them: after they have been hammered here a while with the smallest hammer, they cut each of them into four, and put them into the second mould, to be extended further.
Upon taking them hence, they cut them again into four, and put them into the third mould; out of which they are taken, divided into four, as before, and laid in the last, or finishing mould, where they are beaten to the degree of thinness required.
The leaves thus finished, they take them out of the mould, and dispose them into little paper-books, prepared with a little red bole, for the gold to stick to; each book ordinarily contains twenty-five gold leaves. There are two sizes of these books; twenty-five leaves of the smallest only weigh five or six grains, and the same number of the largest nine or ten grains.
It must be observed, that gold is beaten more or less, according to the kind or quality of the work it is intended for; that for the gold-wire drawers to gild their ingots withal, is left much thicker than that for gilding the frames of pictures, &c. withal. See GILDING.