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Precious Metals: There's More to Gold Than Just Glamour
by Mark Nildern
http://www.rigold.com
Gold is a highly valuable precious metal, that most people
appreciate for its ornative qualities. There is scarcely
a woman today in the western world who doesn't have at
least one piece of gold jewelry, even if it is only her
wedding band? If we examine the history of this lovely
metal, we would see that wars have been fought over it,
people have died for it, people are consumed by greed
for it, others have betrayed friends and family for it.
This is because it represents wealth and power in the minds
of most people. Let us have a look, however, at some of
the more practical ways that gold is used every day.
The deployment systems for motor vehicle air bags, for
example, use gold-plated sensors that send a signal to the
air bag when it's time to deploy. Why gold? Simply
because this is the only metal that's resistant enough to
be used for this type of device. In addition, its
reliability factor makes it the best possible choice for
the metal that's used to save the lives of you and your
loved ones in the event of an accident.
The tremendous volume of communication of today requires an
equally tremendous variety of phones. Land phones, cell
phones, wireless phones, and internet telephony all exist
side by side today. They all carry vast amounts of daily
business and personal communication that takes place in
world. We would not be able to use all of these fabulous
devices without gold, since gold is a critical element in
the transmission of all phone calls. Gold is in the mouth
piece of each phone, creating a miniature transmitter.
Additionally, this precious metal is used in phone jacks
and connection cords. Gold is used in virtually all phone
systems in use today, because its natural properties make
it the best element to convey a superior telephone signal.
The space probe Galileo is completely dependent upon its
onboard computers. They are kept from short-circuiting by
the use of heavy ion conductors, made from silicone and
gold. If they did not have this type of protection, this
and other space vessels would not be able to function, and
we would lose critical information about the universe and
and our place within its structure.
The President of the United States is certainly grateful
for gold, but not because of its market value or how
nicely it decorates his loved ones. Airforce One, the
plane that's reserved for the use of this country's
president, is equipped with gold-plated reflectors, which
are necessary in order to protect the plane from being
targeted by heat-seeking missiles.
In order to protect ourselves from possible space hazards,
we need to have strong, dependable telescopes that will not
only allow scientists to see at great distances, but also
in significant detail. The Keck telescopes, which contain
gold-coated mirrors, are among the many tools that are
used to look around our spatial neighborhood. In fact,
these very telescopes were used to give us the most
detailed and precise images of Neptune and Uranus that
we've ever been able to retrieve.
The many uses of gold are impressive, most of which far
outweigh that of embellishment or financial investment
considerations. With any luck, folks will learn to
appreciate this most precious metal for a far better reason
, what it can do to increase the quality of life for the
human race.
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