For thousands of years, gold has played a notable role in society. Of course, today you probably know gold as being used in both some types of electrical work and mostly in jewellery. However, gold has been used for so much more than that. While the price of gold today has nothing to do with its history, anyone who is interested enough in the prices of gold might be curious to know a thing or two about this famous metal. Thankfully, there are many people who will be more than happy to tell you some interesting facts that you might not know about gold.
Gold Has Played a Role in Medicine, and it Still Does
As you get into looking at gold live prices, there’s a very good chance that you only think of gold as a precious metal. While gold is mainly used as a precious metal for jewellery, gold has also been used for medicinal purposes, both historically and even now. For homeopathic medicines, gold is believed to treat many issues, ranging from depression and headaches to bone pains and eating issues.
Gold also played an enormous role in ancient medicines all around the world. Well over 5,000 years ago, the earliest records show that the ancient Egyptians used to ingest gold for what is believed to be mental, physical, and spiritual purposes, believing it would stimulate life force in the body.
In medieval Europe, people consumed the popular gold-coated pills to alleviate sore limbs. This would eventually develop into the discovery that gold can sometimes help with arthritis. Even today, gold is used in medicine, although in very small amounts. For example, radioactive gold is occasionally used to diagnose conditions, and many surgical tools are made with small amounts of gold.
Gold Is Used in Buildings
You might not think about it when you look at buildings in the city, but gold is used a surprising amount during the production of glass. The use of gold in windows is surprisingly popular, especially for climate-controlled buildings. This is because gold can reflect some degree of solar radiation, which will help buildings stay cool in the summer.
In the winter, the gold in the windows will help to reflect internal heat back inward, which will keep the building warm. This type of reflection is one of the reasons why gold is used in the spacesuits that astronauts wear. The sun’s radiation is incredibly intense and having a thin film of gold on the visor helps to better protect the astronaut. These are just a few of the other uses that gold has, aside from being wonderful in jewellery making.