Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1893 — Gold at the Center of the Earth. [ARTICLE]

Gold at the Center of the Earth.

Did you ever stop to consider the fact that in all probability the center of the earth is a globe of gold, iridium and platinum? These metals are, of course, in a liquid state, the iridium at the exact center (that is, provided there is not some heavier metal at present unknown to man ocoupying that plaoe), the platinum next and the globe of gold surrounding the other two. “But,” you say, “what proof have we that your proposition is a tenable hypothesis!” In answer I would say two proofs at least, and perhaps more: First, the three metals mentioned are the heaviest known substances, compared bulk for bulk; this being the case they would be naturally attracted to the center of our planet. “In the beginning,” as Moses would say, the earth was liquid, if not gaseous. In either case the heavy metals mentioned were held in solution. By gradual condensation the metals settled to the center; iridium first (with the proviso above mentioned), platinum next, gold last. Ages ago, when the crust of the earth was thin, very thin, all the gold now known was vomited out in volcanic eruptions. The last mentioned fact is the second reason for believing that our globe has a golden center core woven around a nucleus of iridium and platinum. A third reason for believing that there is gold at the center is this: The earth, as a whole, weighs five times as much as a globe of water the same bulk, while the rocks forming the same outer crust are less than three times as heavy as water. —[St. Louis Republic.