Posted by John Lambert on October 11, 2012 at 19:35:27 user John.
In Reply to: why bother with the ingot? posted by Ed Kiser on October 11, 2012 at 18:32:18:
I may be totally out of my depth here, but AR was aware that the factor that distinguishes iron pyrites from gold is that the former is friable, that is, it fractures easily, whereas gold does not. If they had left the iron pyrites flakes in the cocoa tin, Captain Flint would have had to smelt them himself in order to make sure they were gold. (Of course, this leaves out the aqua regia test.) From a literary standpoint, it was much better to build up the suspense by having the S and A's try to do it themselves. A solid chunk of gold is much more impressive than a few flakes. Evidently the S and A's considered that CF would have thought so as well.
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