There's gold in them there engine rotors.

There's gold on them there engine rotors

Gold! The divine metal that ancient man warred and worked for -- and which has been worshipped since 3000 B.C. -- today in fact is largely an industrial agent, championed for its stalwart resistance to corrosion and oxidization.

And in Bell Gardens, amid ponderous oil tanks and Mack trucks, President Sam Bell of Metal Surfaces Inc. applies untold pounds of gold each day to the implements of modern America -- telephone jacks, computer equipment, fine wire meshes and even engine rotors for NASA's famed Space Shuttle.

Nothing keeps electricity flowing between two parts like gold, which quietly has become ubiquitous in the Information Age with its growing use of small wires or circuits acutely vulnerable to oxidization.

"Gold-plating makes contacts that have good conductivity and which resist corrosion and oxidation," says Bell, 43, a Pasadena native, holding a gold-plated wire contact. "Since the 1950s, the demand for gold-plating has increased because of the increased use of electronic components."

Copper -- the metal of choice for electrical wiring -- can and does tarnish, particularly at the exposed ends of wires or jacks.

The blue-green color seen on a copper penny left out of doors, or on a bronze statue, is oxidization, known to artists as verdi gris.

While prized in the art world, verdi gris is death on electricity. Oxidization -- formally copper oxide -- inhibits and can halt an electric current.

And therein lies gold's real luster: As if by magic, gold never tarnishes or oxidizes. A copper terminal, after being gold-plated, will not oxidize and can be relied on to transmit electricity.

Obviously, from computers to telephones to passenger aircraft to hospital equipment, this property of gold is essential: "Today about 95 percent of electronic contacts in computer equipment or integrated circuits (computer chips) are gold-plated," says Michael Brown, spokesman for the Gold Institute in Washington, D.C., a trade association. "Look at your phone jack. It is gold-plated, unless you have a cheap-o phone."

Gold can be spread onto copper so thinly that its cost -- now about $360 an ounce -- becomes less important next to other costs, such as labor and transportation. When electroplated, a part will have as little as 10 millionths of an inch of gold upon it, although certain military parts have tougher specifications, says Bell.

"Military applications can have from 50 millionths to 250 millionths of an inch," he says. "They really like to coat it on thick."

By way of comparison, a human hair is about 4,000 millionths of an inch thick.

The thin plating makes gold a relative bargain, considering what might happen should an electrical circuit fail. Holding up a polyester bag of 5,000 wire connectors, Bell says, "We'll charge about $150 to $200 for this." That's about 3 cents to 4 cents apiece.

Despite the heavy use of the lustrous yellow metal as a plating material nonpareil, gold voyeurs hoping to espy bullion at Bell's plant will be disappointed.

The precious ore arrives at Bell's plant not in metal form, but as potassium gold cyanide, a toxic powder that looks a lot like table salt.

The cyanide is dissolved into a clear solution the metal-platers call electrolyte, which is kept in bathtub-sized sinks and looks much like water.

The part to be gold-plated is wired up and electrified, and then dipped into the electrolyte.

The gold ions in the electrolyte solution are attracted to, and adhere themselves to, electrons on the electrified part, making whole gold atoms.

To the naked eye, it appears as if a piece of metal in water has been transformed to gold.

There are other methods of applying gold, but electroplating is the most common.

Among the more unlikely contraptions in Bell's factory are three "continuous platers." The 75-foot-long continuous platers unwind large, yard-wide spools of electrical components, much like a tape recorder, through baths of electrolyte, to be rewound on receiving spools. The process allows his 150 workers to efficiently plate small electrical parts, says Bell.

But he points out that not all gold-plating involves electronic componentry.

Bell's 46-year-old, 50,000-square-foot plant is also a NASA contractor and gold-plates special rotors used to pump rocket fuel on the Space Shuttle, with 12 rotors on each craft.

In this case, the gold protects the nickel-iron base-metal on the rotor from rocket fuel, which is very cold liquid hydrogen -- "cold" as in minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit.

"The cold hydrogen -- and hydrogen is the smallest atom -- would enter into the nickel-iron and cause embrittlement and premature fatigue," explains Bell.

The rotors require a very thick coat of gold, says Bell. "We had to put that on about 2 thousandths of an inch thick," he exclaims, as if describing the hull of the battleship U.S.S. New Jersey.

Constantly, Bell prefers to downplay the role of gold in his factory, speaking of the metal in prosaic terms and pointing out that other metals are also plated there, such as chrome and nickel.

Nevertheless, gold appears to be in the Bell family's blood: Bell's younger sister, Rosey, is at work on a television documentary about the legendary Doc E. Milton gold treasure trove, believed by some to be buried on Victorio Peak in the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. She will begin digging for the long-buried booty this month.

PHOTO : Good to the last drop: Gold voyeurs hoping to espy bullion at the plant will be disappointed

PHOTO : Wheel of fortune: As if by magic, gold never tarnishes or oxidizes