AZLiberty :
Ancient Egyptians considered gold “the skin of the gods”
A gold skin might protect you from a heat ray weapon.
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Texokie:
Now, there’s a concept!
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Kitty Claws:
Isn’t gold a conductor?
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Texokie:
When I answered about it being a concept... I was thinking of the Alan Bean space suit I saw once, with it being carefully pointed out that the front visor of the helmet had been coated with gold to protect against the rays. At least that was what I understood it to be for.
Efficiency expert William Deming said, “Without data all you are is just another opinion.” [I’ve found those to be good words to live by!]
Sooooo....
I’ve done a brief search, and I’m not sure I have found a satisfactory answer to our question, Kitty Claws. I bet AZLiberty and some of our technical FReeQs have the ready means to elaborate - certainly on my own areas of ignorance!
To get the ball rolling....
https://www.reference.com/science/gold-good-conductor-electricity-6432f373afa51cd4
Is Gold a Good Conductor of Electricity?
Gold is a very good conductor of electricity. It is often used as plating for connectors because it does not tarnish or corrode easily.
Even though copper and silver are better conductors than gold, gold retains its conductivity longest because it does not tarnish or corrode easily. For this reason, gold is most often used in plating where it is exposed to the air. Gold also makes great wiring because it is very ductile and can be drawn extremely thin. However, copper wire is much more common because of the high cost involved in producing gold electronics.
AND
https://www.quora.com/Is-gold-a-conductor-or-an-insulator
Gold is a very good conductor of electricity. Its electrical conductivity is 44.6 x 10^6 Siemens/meter. (For comparison: electrical conductivity of Silver and Copper are 62.1 x 10^6 and 58.5 x 10^6 Siemens/meter respectively. The electrical conductivity of Aluminium, Iron and Tungsten are 36.9 x 10^6 , 10.1 x 10^6 and 8.1 x 10^6 Siemens/meter respectively).
Gold is very costly and has poor tensile strength which makes it unsuitable for making transmission lines or windings in generators and motors.
On the other hand, Gold is highly malleable, ductile, corrosion resistant and most reliable which makes it suitable for use in high performance and safety-critical electronic circuitry. For example: electronic circuitry used in aerospace industry.
AND
https://geology.com/minerals/gold/uses-of-gold.shtml
The Many Uses of Gold
Article by: Hobart M. King, Ph.D., RPG
The Most Useful Metal
Of all the minerals mined from the Earth, none is more useful than gold. Its usefulness is derived from a diversity of special properties. Gold conducts electricity, does not tarnish, is very easy to work, can be drawn into wire, can be hammered into thin sheets, alloys with many other metals, can be melted and cast into highly detailed shapes, has a wonderful color and a brilliant luster. Gold is a memorable metal that occupies a special place in the human mind.
Table of Contents
A Bit of Gold History
Jewelry: The Primary Use of Gold
Financial Gold: Coinage, Bullion, Backing
Uses of Gold in Electronics
Uses of Gold in Computers
Uses of Gold in Dentistry
Medical Uses of Gold
Uses of Gold in Aerospace
Uses of Gold in Awards & Status Symbols
Uses of Gold in Glassmaking
Gold Gilding and Gold Leaf
Future Uses of Gold
Substitutes for Gold and Reductions in Use
OK - Moving to the use of gold in electronics, computers, and aerospace chapters:
Electronics:
The most important industrial use of gold is in the manufacture of electronics. Solid state electronic devices use very low voltages and currents which are easily interrupted by corrosion or tarnish at the contact points. Gold is the highly efficient conductor that can carry these tiny currents and remain free of corrosion. Electronic components made with gold are highly reliable. Gold is used in connectors, switch and relay contacts, soldered joints, connecting wires and connection strips.
A small amount of gold is used in almost every sophisticated electronic device. This includes cell phones, calculators, personal digital assistants, global positioning system (GPS) units, and other small electronic devices. Most large electronic appliances such as television sets also contain gold.
One challenge with the use of gold in very small quantities in very small devices is loss of the metal from society. Nearly one billion cell phones are produced each year, and most of them contain about fifty cents worth of gold. Their average lifetime is under two years, and very few are currently recycled. Although the amount of gold is small in each device, their enormous numbers translate into a lot of unrecycled gold.
Uses of Gold in Computers:
Gold is used in many places in the standard desktop or laptop computer. The rapid and accurate transmission of digital information through the computer and from one component to another requires an efficient and reliable conductor. Gold meets these requirements better than any other metal. The importance of high quality and reliable performance justifies the high cost.
Edge connectors used to mount microprocessor and memory chips onto the motherboard and the plug-and-socket connectors used to attach cables all contain gold. The gold in these components is generally electroplated onto other metals and alloyed with small amounts of nickel or cobalt to increase durability.
Uses of Gold in Aerospace:
If you are going to spend billions of dollars on a vehicle that when launched will travel on a voyage where the possibility of lubrication, maintenance and repair is absolutely zero, then building it with extremely dependable materials is essential. This is exactly why gold is used in hundreds of ways in every space vehicle that NASA launches.
Gold is used in circuitry because it is a dependable conductor and connector. In addition, many parts of every space vehicle are fitted with gold-coated polyester film. This film reflects infrared radiation and helps stabilize the temperature of the spacecraft. Without this coating, dark colored parts of the spacecraft would absorb significant amounts of heat.
Gold is also used as a lubricant between mechanical parts. In the vacuum of space, organic lubricants would volatilize and they would be broken down by the intense radiation beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Gold has a very low shear strength, and a thin film of gold between critical moving parts serves as a lubricant - the gold molecules slip past one another under the forces of friction and that provides a lubricant action.
Conclusions:
My take away is that there might be a way to create a shield “skin” with gold to resist a PAIN RAY weapon, as AZLibery suggests.... but how many Honduran peasants would have that kind of cash laying around??? Or the technical expertise to accomplish it if they did?
The ancient Egyptians had it going on in their understanding of the relevance of gold. Perhaps their “gods” had such gold “skins.” And perhaps the gold capstone had a purpose for conduction - or some other relevant property- that we may be unaware of, or which is poorly understood today.
We may well see such defenses against the PAIN RAY develop in coming years by those with the means to do so, ie other nations’ armies, and mercenary forces, and (God forbid) the cartels.
Present day “pain ray” active denial systems use microwaves. The gold would act similar to metals put in a microwave oven. After a period of sparking the breastplate/helmet would heat up and cook the meat touching it. I would suggest NOT making anti-pain ray armor from gold.
So Auric Goldfinger was on to something?
In reference to gold, in the power industry, we used silver plating a lot in our older relay/control circuits, the circuits that sense short circuits and overloads and subsequently trip circuit breakers on major transmission lines and equipment. I’m not sure what is used in the newest stuff - could still be silver or even gold. It’s been a number of years since I’ve been “hands-on”.
Silver was probably chosen because it is cheaper, and it is a bit harder than gold. It is a great conductor and is corrosion resistant also.
For primary transmission lines, Aluminum with a steel reinforcing core is used more often than anything. Aluminum is much lighter and cheaper than copper, and although not quite as good a conductor, it is still a better solution. A much larger wire size can be used with aluminum because of the weight. As a result, a much larger capacity can be used while still lighter and requiring less structural capacity on the towers, poles, and insulators.