The Art of Gold Beating (1959) | British Pathé
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- čas přidán 12. 04. 2014
- Gold beating is an age-old process that goes back to the era of ancient Egyptians. Wonder at how this precious metal is slowly beat down to a leaf like consistency in this archive footage from 1959.
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(FILM ID:87.05)
Ruislip Middlesex.
Gold is used for many artistic glorification. But see here the process of gold being beaten until it has the thickness it needs.
C/U shot of a golden muscular arm holding mallet hanging on a wall. M/S of a man in the middle of gold melting process. Mr Bert Green pours gold into a small cast. C/U of a cast. Mr Green turns the cast over and a gold bar is out. M/S of Mr Green's face as he works. C/U shot of the bar being taken away.
C/U shot of a thin gold ribbon passing through a roller. Voiceover tells the audience that, golden bar, after being rolled into ribbon, is cut in squares and then beaten by hammers. C/U shot of the ribbon being cut in squares.
M/S of three people working. C/U shot of girl's hands as she puts golden squares in some sheets. M/S of a man taking sheets, putting into protection cover and placing under the hammering machine. C/U shot of the gold being beaten. M/S of a girl cutting a leaf in four. C/U shot of thin golden leaf being cut in four.
Several shots of gold beating by using large hammering machines as well as beating by hand. Finished leaves are cut into squares and ready to use. M/S of a man restoring old picture frame with gold leaves. C/U shot of a brush pressing the gold on the frame. C/U shot of several books bound with gold leaves and two little gold figurines. C/U shot of the symbol of House of Windsor.
Note: People featured in film are Bert Green, Kathleen Smith, Fay Crawford, George Lewellyn, Beryl Clark, Ted Ricketts, Jean Edwards, Ted Hook, Joe Woodward, Sylvia Lewington and Jim Sussex.
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Dude beats a pad for 63 years and is still smiling. What a lad.
And with the same hammer
Did you notice one arm was bigger than the other?
@@ericschmid cus he not only beat the gold
Imagine doing that and being able to afford a 3 bedroom house and a family with 3 kids. I’d be smiling too
@@yuriygolovenko6633 Because the country wouldn't be full of 'people' holding up their hands for free handouts.
63 years swinging a hammer.
it makes you think...
A simply way to make money.
Rubio simple? Lol
If it were simple they wouldn't have created machines to do this.
@@lakechamp529 I'm talking about the Man with the hammer. Today Is not easy find a job with good pay only using a hammer. Gretings from chile.
@@SPQR-qq5bz I guess a murderer would match those criteria
Was pleased to show this to my 80 year old mother in law, whose older brother is front and centre at the 2:15 mark in the darker shirt. She tells me he was hard of hearing. I wonder why?
She also mentioned that the parchment they used was frequently from discarded antique documents, like medieval wills.
Isn't that destroying parts of history?
@@VolkColopatrion Absolutely it was!
Wow
And 😮
@@Aughtabe there is something so morbid about that. The wills are the last wishes of a living person.
And yet it is used to carry material wealth.
Please tell me they buried that hammer with him.
Finally that hammer could retire.
Legend has it that on calm quite nights you can hear him banging on the lid of his coffin with his hammer..
that guy is still alive today
@@saulangelo9099 Yeah you're right man.. He is roommates with Tupac and Biggie..
@@MarkLada Which Tupac? Shakur or Amaru? Cause only one of them is still alive, and it's not the one you think
It take years of wacking experience to become a Master Beater.
If that's the case Im pretty sure I've surpassed the expert level and am on legendary at the moment
Something tells me that this is comment is just baiting me . . .
You won the internet with this comment, :)
Juan Kerr.
Jealous?
"put gold to a more practical use"
nothing more practical than gilding a picture frame
Here we put gold and silver leaves on sweets lmao
Yeah. Weird too since using gold leaf as an alternative to paint, especially outdoors (like gilding domes in beautiful cities), is very practical since it can last 10x as long as a protective layer. It’s both cost efficient and a good conservation tool. It also has near zero negative environmental effects unlike paint.
@@vysharra Mining gold is very destructive to the environment.. The machinery drinks diesel fuel like elephants drink water.. Not to mention the fact they often have to dig massive holes 50 feet deep to get to the gold.. It's shiny though and it's worth money. So people are literally willing to move mountains to get to it..
@@MarkLada so is oil recovery/production for acrylic paints.
@@vysharra agreed, gold at least has high reuse value unlike say, oil.
love how all workers dress in suits to hammer gold
Back when we had style
Maybe they knew they were going to be filmed.
They dressed to impress cause they were going to be filmed.
@@bico500 True. And also as if they something other to wear during those days.
@@TimStamper89 If everyone wears something all the time, it stops being stylish and start becoming standard.
This is possibly the most British thing I have ever seen.
No it's not. Watch this; czcams.com/video/UeGPt6RgjZI/video.html&ab_channel=BritishPath%C3%A9
@@archdukehamburgervononionr1948 😂😂😂
Funny, it's also very Japanese somehow.
It cant be, there was no Tea O.o
Just LOLed😂
The narrator voice is so classic. The music is phenomenal. Just like old disney cartoons.
I made some calculation as I had a bit of time:
In 1959 the gold price was 35.25 Dollars per Ounce, The GBP bought 2.812 Dollars So that gold bar what they Poured out at the beginning was worth 1000 Pounds means it's weight was 79.77 Ounces or 2.24 KG.
That bar worth Today 137919 Dollars or 100681 Pounds.
The Inflation is CRAZY
Yes agreed inflation is crazy I thought 1000 pounds in 1959 must have been a massive amount of money.
He’s had the same hammer for 63 years. In that time it’s had 14 new handles and five new heads 🤗
only brits can understand the beauty of this comment!
Triggers hammer 😂
Ship of Theseus lite
He has been pounding on that for 63 years. The spreadsheet doesn’t sound so bad anymore….
but then... is it still the same hammer after you replaced effectively 100% of it?
"Less than a wavelength of light in thickness". That's a very very broad statement.
Indeed.
Visible light he meant probably
Long wave frequency 198 kHz normally carries BBC World Service
@@fuckbankers 198khz? I don't receive anything under 700
@@prakharmishra5583 indubitably so. indeed good sir.
“Less than a wavelength of light in thickness”… ah yes, the measurement standard everyone is familiar with
Most people know that it's incredibly small.
The gold standard
@@emorymurrah4584 More like video from time when stuff from BBC was educational and not making an idiot out of the viewer...
Can bet that plenty of kids thx to that did the effort to find out what is the wavelength of light...
@@Bialy_1 the joke is - a wavelength of light can be meters long
It's not his fault if you're a simpleton 😂
Imagine being paid to clean gold foil with a rabbits foot
several jobs i can see in this video.
1.) person paid to make gold bar, feed gold bar through roller machin to turn it into strips
2.) person paid to feed strip to cutter to cut strips into squares
3.) someone paid to put square between sheets protectors
4.) someone paid to put book of leaves under beater machine
5.) someone paid to cut the squares now into thinner squares of gold leaves
6.) someone paid to making sure the machine is beating the booklets properly
7.) someone paid to clean gold foil with a rabbits foot
8.) someone paid to smell the gold leaves
9.) someone paid to hammer gold leaves by hand
10.) someone paid to cut big leaves of gold sheets into smaller leaves of gold sheets to place in the final booklet....
that's a lot of people you need.
I love the way the gold is put through the rollers like BUTTER in a croissant-making video. Also, why is no one commenting on the first 2 seconds, which looks like some good old-fashioned Three Stooges humor?
😄 you're right just like em
Their dedication to craft is admirable.
That dude running the auto hammer cracked me up. Thundering noise all day long no earplugs in sight
No need, he became deaf the first day.
I don't know why but I find these videos beautiful
I'VE BEEN A GOLD BEATER FOR 63 YEARS, AND HAVE LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT.
Wow! This video certainly takes me back to when I was an apprentice Signwriter (Back about 1965) and we used to use "Gold Leaf" (As we called it) on the windows of Banks, Doctor's Surgeries, Solicitors offices, etc. It was the most demanding type of signwriting that I have ever done as a clear "Size" coat had to be placed on the glass and then the Gold leaf applied. I still have all the gear we used to use. Pad, Special "Knife" to cut the leaf and a special "Brush" that was used to pick it up and transfer it to the glass. We were told how the leaf was made, but I had no idea of just how involved a process it was. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Cheers, Doons
Nobody cares
@@TheBull06 I care! Thanks, Doons!
You should make a video on it
@@xtin_the_jeweler mate, seeing it has been at least 45+ years since I last did any of this work (When did you last see, recently, any Gold lettering on a bank or Solicitors windows?) 2 things would stop me from making a video on it 1) The price of Gold is about 25 times higher now than it was back then...and 2) At those prices I'd waist a fortune trying to get it right! 🤣
@@doonsbury9656 can always monitize on that video ! Plus you will leave that knowledge to someone who is interested in a long lost trade . Id love to have signs on my storefront like that considering my storefront id from the 60s
2:00 "...a hare's foot is used...". Now THAT's an unexpected tool.
It's like that old joke :
A bear and a rabbit are having a long conversation when the bear suddenly asks the rabbit how they cleans up after going to the toilet. The rabbit replies that they have never needed to clean themselves since nothing sticks to their fur. The bear thinks for a moment, then says "That is good to know" as he reaches down to pick up the rabbit.
This channel is amazing
Ah, yes. What my mother used to give be when i didn't behave out in public: ✨golden beating✨
Went to Thailand many years ago, never seen so much gold leaf in my entire life, on the interior roofs of taxis, on statues and buildings, etc.
Amazing video, btw.
...and at the shrines, everyday...everynight as an offerring...
And lady boys, drugs etc etc.
@@kanifuker721 Yes we did see those things happening as well. Thais are very reverent people, though, many in the temples praying, etc.
I wonder how many loss their hearing not to mention their fingers
John Monck Probably all. I didn’t see any ear protection in the film.
Pardon
@niecers Its a joke referring what people say a lot when they are hard of hearing.
@@jonny7491 What?! 😋
@@fartingfury it’s a joke, if I said to you “I must be loosing my hearing”because I didn’t hear what you said as a joke you might say pardon.
Beating gold for 63 years! What an exciting life to live. Saying that, the man was probably making some nice dough
Richard Dawson different times. He was probably very grateful to have that job. He would have been around during the Great Depression and seen tough times.
Average salary for UK goldbeaters in 1957 was between £100-120 per week. Adjusted to current rates that's £2.030 per week. So over £105.000 per year in current values pre-tax. Talk about a nice chunk of change!
A simply and honest way to get money
@@pieterdiffenderfer5691 wonder what he would of been paid as an apprentice in 1896?
Highly unlikely.
Who was the first person who thought, “This would be good on food!”?
Some bored rich kid
"The first evidence of gold for food use dates back to Egypt in the second millennium BC. The purpose of its use was essentially votive: for the ancient Egyptians it was a way to approach their divinities."
2 seconds with google... can bet that wiritng that comment was slower.
Give this film a gold medal!
If possible a gilded one would suit them better.
The narrator of this is iconic😉
Amazing chopsticks skills! Lifting flimsy foils with ease.
My favorite scene is 2:15 thru 2:40. Look at them hammer! It's repetitive work, to say the least, but gold is a material that you can have passion for. It's almost divine.
2:30 imagine doing this type of work every day for eight hours your whole life
Must be torture
Happens to us all. The day I started working in an office I said to myself “I’m not going to be doing this for long” Fifteen years later I’m still there. A regular wage keeps you there and especially in today’s climate with the virus causing mass unemployment.
Twenty seven years ago, I started a job as a temp to keep me going 'til something better was available. Although I'm doing a different job now, I'm still with the same firm - !
Not much different than staring at a screen for 8 h
I've come from globe making to hard candy and now to gold hammering. I may sound crazy, but I could watch these old vids all day 👍 Also very satisfying 😊
Watch with me
What an interesting process to see! Thank you for sharing this!
63 years swinging, what a master.
Who said you can't get far as a swinger.
The film quality it’s absolutely unbelievable. Fantastic digitization.
Fascinating. I'll bet they're beating gold pretty much the same way even now -- but in Asia of course, where labor is cheap.
Certain it's all automated now
Many fingers where harmed in the beating of gold.
Sorry to be a grammar Nazi, but *were
Atleast 2.
Ive got a bunch of gold leaf, and even used it on a school project back in the dy. Its super cool stuff. Very delicate!
Imagine your day was dusting gold leaf with a severed hares foot...
Ah those glorious days when worker safety was a non-thought. I'm sure no one retired with any of the hearing intact and with wicked tinnitus.
All those guys are arm wrestling champs.
There’s only one family left in the world that still makes gold leaf the old way by hand. But this is neat.
He hammered gold his entire life, don't you freaking dare bury him with a hammer. Let that man sleep,
When you try to explain your great grandfather what your job is like and he tells you "When I was your age, I was already beating the gold to the layers, thiner than a sheet!" 😅
What do you do for a living?
I sniff gold mate
Connor - Gold sniffer :)
They were sniffing the parchment, not the gold.
@@misium vellum
I beat paper with rock all day.
Pmsl, creased!!
I love old videos like these
The dislikes are from oxen and hares.
love these style videos ol timey...
The narrator is the best!
At 3:02 the worker brushes his cheek for a moment to built up static electricity so he can touch the gold leaf and it’ll stick on the brush.
@@analogueavenue Unfortunately you’re wrong again.
Now the gold is placed in between sheets, which are more expensive than the gold they are holding. We should decorate the statues with those bamboo sheets then :D
That lady cutting and packing the leaf looked batshit crazy from her job. 🤪
I'm also elated they either got Terrence or Phillip to narrate this buddeh
Would you not go crazy with those machines in the background banging.
im now in the vintage side of youtube
I love your program and your Chanel. ❤
These guys 2:15 have been selected at the “Whack a Mole” championship......
Intresting!
OMG!! The mass beating of the gold leaf from 2:19 made me split my sides laughing!!! Its insane!! :)
It's like the "Anvil Chorus" from "Il Trovatore" 😄 (It's one of those famous ones you probably recognise but don't know the name of, at least that's how it was for me)
The final sign off really puts it Into perspective just how thin gold leafe really is. "Less then a wavelength of light."
Well done. Thanks for uploading.
Really interesting
Interesting!
He started hammering in 1896. OMG!
Wife: I have a headache
Guy at 1:28 after work: oh please...
This is the first CZcams video on how to.
Ear protection!?........don’t be daft, lad 🤣
OK no problem mate. I'll be the daft one, and you be the one with tinnitus in 20 years 👍🏻
@@tomsharpe2251 I'll be the daft one, and you can be the Deaf one.
@@PajamaManor deaf? With ear protection? I think you're missing the point mate did you even read what I wrote?
@@tomsharpe2251 Oh, sure I did. I should have replied to the other guy.
"Ear protection?...Don't be daft, lad 🤣"
Me (the lad): "I'll be daft, you can be the deaf one. "
So get the crumpets out of your ass, it's not even that serious.
WHAT?
63 years of hammering gold just to get gold pizza and gold ice cream.
I'm not sure what's more precious, the subject matter, or the narrator's voice.
Joes been using the same hammer for 63 years. He’s only changed the handle 4 times and the head 3!
Towards the end, I was almost certain this was all a joke, then I saw the practical application of the leaf...insane.
You thought gold leaf was a joke?
2:15 Imagine, working in that room for 63 years.
Must have been a torture
I need more of those 3 first seconds.
no wonder gold costs so much, look at how many people they have to pay
No hearing protection, safety glasses, anti vibration gloves, long sleeves, christ, it's amazing we get anything done these days
what
...wait these days? Huh
What?
@@keithbray9416 these days because we have so many safety regulations which make it much more difficult to perform even a simple task. At least thats what i think he's saying i dunno
This is pure gold!
When they said that guy had used the same hammer for so long it reminded me of Trig and his broom.
I'd like to apply for the apprentice beater position if still available. Lol
Wat! Speak up!
Well, the guy who was the young apprentice in the clip is now about 77 so his position will be be available soon.
Top tip. Don't hammer your fingers .
The Fishdog common sense can’t be taught
thank god the comments aren't turned off
Nice job :-)
I want the gold smeller job
This is appetising.
Goldfinger, he's the man, the man with the Midas touch....
None of those people have hearing protection
Never thought necessary back then, same with eye protection and hard hats. They were for wimps.
0:52 I need her @ Instagram but I think it's too late
That's someone's grandma
I was about to say that. She looks so beautiful 🤩
Bro shes been dead
I have a ear problem called TINNITUS,omg ! These workers must have developed hearing problems over the years ? ABSOLUTE MIRACLE IF THEY DID’NT !
That song comes to mind when I watched this “ IF I HAD A HAMMER “ lol couldn’t resist,lol.
I thought that gold leaf was a relatively new thing in the last few years but obviously not after watching this ..
Awesome!
Charming indeed, but My God does this scream automation-potential
And yet it’s still done by hand to this day
No its not
0:52 This lady is gorgeous
She's nothing special.
@@WeirdSmellyMan Are u blind?
@@Anskef emma stone is beautiful, zooey deschanel is beautiful, this chick....meh
Get stuck in mate, she'll be in her eighties and grateful.
Bruh, beauty is relative. If he said she's beauty, you ain't need to disagree
Amazing, Gold is Simply Amazing.
Started at an age of 14 and has been swinging the same hammer for 63 years.
This sounds like something from Fallout
No, fallout sounds like something from this.
I use it for decoration on my weed cakes.
can i have one pls
Interesting videos
I wonder how many of these ppl took home some of the gold they were trimming off. After 40 years you could have a few blocks to retire on
i would bet they had people monitor if anyone is stealing the gold excess. hey would probably melt it down to recycle or something.
Wow. Actual rabbits feet!
You could still buy them at hobby lobby in the 90s
I'm fairly confident he said a hare's foot but everyone else hears rabbit..
@@dunc71 I heard deer's foot. Guess the hammer noises impaired my hearing.
"Egyptian mummies on British museums"
Excuse me?
"Can be seen untarnished and unbroken on mummy cases in the British museum"
Wasn't Egypt British colony?
Amazing.
So wonderful
Enough internet for today