Daniel writes:

“Last bit , pure gold melts about 400 degrees F higher than brass, so for any
gold vapor to be floating about in the furnace the brass would be a puddle.”


Of course what Daniel writes is perfectly the case …. but perhaps not all of
the story.

You see, the stock was being prepared in a discarded furnace for making
porcelain dental prostheses.  It was discarded for the very reason that when it
had been used to render and cast gold crowns, the ceramic walls of the furnace
had become so contaminated with the gold vapors that the furnace had to be
discarded because it was tarnishing the porcelain.

True enough that porcelain cures at a much higher temperature than will melt
brass or gold.  But because the furnace is made of ceramic walls heated by
electrical elements, the temperature where the brass rod rested on the furniture
is considerably cooler than the furnace walls themselves, certainly at least a
400 degree difference.  It is quite reasonable that the gold could reach the
heat of vaporization confined in the pores of ceramic walls long before the
brass in the center of the furnace got up to the melting point.

That is just a possible objective counterpoint to Daniel’s objective analysis
of the phenomenon.  But you know, I sometimes wonder how far we get when we are
so objective.  I am reminded of the Salem witch trials which were brought to a
sudden halt by one single proviso being imposed on the proceedings:  the courts
refused to continue admitting spectral evidence.  With only objective evidence
to go on, no one could make a case against any of the accused.  I’m thinking
of the lines in the folk song “Susana Martin”

“The spectral evidence was weighed and up the parson spoke
 ‘Thou shalt not suffer witch to live’  ‘tis written in the book”

Like that, when we investigate the essence of the matter of ancient harps, if we
insist on only considering objective evidence, what are we left with?  Alas,
there’s nothing more than a very few badly dilapidated, badly “restored”,
modified, instruments that no one can be sure how they were strung, tuned,
played or what motivated their construction.  Were they essentially functional,
ornamental, typical?

So we find ourselves admitting spectral evidence.  We will look to clues as to
the nature and manner of the ancient harps in stylized stone carvings and
mythology and poetry.

Now, when I played a younger man’s harp, I earned much of my living in the
technical fields and so it is second nature to confine myself to the objective
much as Daniel has done and to disallow spectral evidence.  But I feel the
story is incomplete if I do not disclose that on the evening when I was
discussing this with my fellow musician, the metallurgist who made the shoes,
the musical session waxed long and after many, many a tune and when the bottle
had been shortened to that phase of a musical session  known as the
“diminished fifth”..... in explaining the change in the shoes I was sure I
caught the word “transmute.”

Or to paraphrase Khayaam’s Rubaiyyat:

“The Harp that can with Logic absolute
The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute:
The subtle Alchemist that in a Trice
Life's leaden Metal into Gold transmute.”



James
www.folcharp.com





















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