The Varied Uses of Gold

Gold, being one of the most sought after precious metals, is often regarded as something to possess for the sake of adornment. It would be hard to find a jewelry box today that doesn't contain some form of this alluring material. Looking into its history, we see that wars have been fought for it, people have died for it and those who are consumed by greed have betrayed others for it, all for the sake of wealth and power. There are, however, some more utilitarian uses for gold that many may be unaware of, but without which, we would be unable to function in the manner in which we do today.

For example, the deployment systems in air bags in motor vehicles use gold-plated sensors to send a signal to the air bag alerting the need to deploy. Why was gold chosen? It is the only metal with a high enough resistance for the hair-thin sensitivity of this device. Meanwhile, it is so reliable that it is the best choice for something that's needs to be relied on in the event of an accident to save the lives of a vehicle's passengers.

Today's tremendous volume of communication requires an equally large variety of phones. There exist today land phones, cell phones, wireless phones, internet telephony, etc. All of these carry the vast amount of daily business and personal communication that takes place around the world. But, without gold, we would not be able to use all of these fabulous devices. Gold is a critical element in the transmission of all phone calls. Each mouthpiece has gold in its miniature transmitter, and, in addition, this precious metal is used in phone jacks and connection cords. The natural properties of gold make it the best element to convey a superior telephonic signal, and so it is used in virtually all of the phone systems in use today.

The onboard computers on the space probe Galileo are kept from short-circuiting by the use of heavy ion conductors, made from silicone and gold. It is completely dependent upon its computers, and if they did not have this type of protection, this and other space vessels would not be able to function. We would lose critical information about the universe and our place in it.

Each president of the United States uses gold each time he travels, and it isn't just because he wears a gold watch. He is supplied by the American government with a plane solely for his use. Air Force One, the plane the president uses to travel is equipped with gold-plated reflectors that protect the plane from being targeted by heat-seeking missiles.

For additional knowledge, or In order to protect ourselves from possible space hazards, we are constantly peering into the skies. We need to have strong, dependable telescopes to do this, so that scientists can see at great distances in significant detail. Keck Telescopes are used for this purpose, and they contain gold-coated mirrors that look around our space neighborhood. We have received most detailed and precise images of Neptune and Uranus ever recorded from these Keck Telescopes.

Now that we have started to look at the many uses of gold, we will now start to appreciate its many contributions. The uses of gold for other than a lucrative investment, or for embellishment and adornment are varied and many. Now we see how this very precious metal has made to improve the quality of life for all of us.

Mark Nildern runs the website and writes for

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