This black and white educational film about gold was produced by Academic Film Company Inc. and adapted from a John Hix “Strange As It Seems” that was originally segment shown in theatres. It was narrated by Robert Sherwood. The film begins with a re-enactment of Louis XVI’s financial woes. Marie Antoinette and Cardinal de Roahn visit an alchemist to make gold to save France but it is a scam (:37-3:30). December 3, 1848, a soldier arrives at a telegraph office in New Orleans with a message to send from Governor Mason to the President. He drops a handful of gold on the desk, proof that California should be admitted to the Union, and the gold rush in on (3:32-4:42). Coloma Valley is shown, where gold was first discovered by James Marshall on January 24, 1848 (4:44-5:03). Mark Twain lived in a cabin at Jackass Hill in the gold town Angel’s Camp (5:04-5:15). Virginia City is shown as a crumbling ghost town (5:17-5:33). The Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859 yielded both gold and silver ore (5:34-5:49). One mine required a tram line to be built to haul the gold out and supplies back in using buckets as the mountains were too steep for train tracks (5:50-6:32). The Empire Mine in Grass Valley was one of the deepest gold mines in the world. Miners cling to the ore cars as they are lowered into the shaft. The ore is dumped into electric railroad cars and transported to a facility to be treated and the gold recovered (6:33-7:00). There are thousands of feet of railroad also below the surface (7:01-7:13). Another mining method is to use giant dredges to plow their way through the gravel (7:14-7:39). Hydraulic mining is also used by forcing water through large nozzles sprayed on the gravel walls. The runoff is caught by sluice boxes, where the gold sinks to the bottom. It is then passed over plates saturated with mercury to which the gold adheres, forming gold amalgam, which is shown being treated in a furnace (7:40-8:25). This bullion is formed into gold ingots, shown up close (8:26-8:44). Men pan for gold in a stream (8:45-9:05).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com