GOLD-LEAF. See Gold-LEAF (Encycl.) where a full account is given from Dr Lewis of the process of gold-beating. In that article, we have said that gold-leaf ought to be prepared from the finest gold; but Mr Nicholson, who, in all probability, knows much more of the matter than the author from whom our account was copied, assures us that this is a mistake, and that pure gold is too ductile to be worked between the gold-beaters' skin. The newest skins will work the finest gold, and make the thinnest leaf, because they are the smoothest. Old skins, being rough or foul, require coarser gold. The finer the gold, the more ductile; inasmuch that pure gold, when driven out by the hammer, is too soft to force itself over the irregularities, but would pass round them, and by that means become divided into narrow slips. The finest gold for this purpose has three grains of alloy in the ounce, and the coarsest twelve grains. In general, the alloy is six grains, or one eightieth part. That which is called pale gold contains three pennyweights of silver in the ounce. The alloy of leaf gold is silver, or copper, or both, and the colour is produced of various tints accordingly. Two ounces and two pennyweights of gold is delivered by the master to the workman, who, if extraordinarily skilful, returns two thousand leaves, or eighty books of gold, together with one ounce and six pennyweights of waste cuttings. Hence one book weighs 4.8 grains; and as the leaves measure 3.3 inches in the side, the thickness of the leaf is one two hundred and eighty-two thousandth part of an inch.
The yellow metal called Dutch gold is fine brass. It is said to be made from copperplates, by cementation with calamine, without subsequent fusion. Its thickness, compared with that of leaf gold, proved as 19 to 4, and under equal surfaces it is considerably more than twice as heavy as the gold. Nicholson's Journal, Vol. 1st.