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Gold Not Only Glitters

For thousands of years gold has been eagerly sought after and treasured. It has been prized not only for its glittering beauty but also for its ability to be pressed or hammered into shape. Gold is the most malleable of all the metals. Consider this: A grain is equal to 0.0648 of a gram (there are 7,000 grains to one pound avoirdupois). But with modern techniques, a single grain of gold could be beaten down to a sheet 1/14,000 of a millimeter in thickness and a little larger than this page. The sheet would be translucent. One ounce of gold (28.35 g) could be stretched about 80 kilometers (50 mi.). No wonder that this metal was used extensively in making ornaments and utensils for the tabernacle constructed by the Israelites in the wilderness.—Ex. 25:18, 31; 39:2, 3.