fake tin plates?

Post by **_CaliforniaKid** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 8:44 am

Her Amun on the MADB calls the critics' Joseph Smith a "metallurgist," becaus he made tin plates as a makeshift deception. What do people here think of this theory? I am not terribly inclined to it myself, although I recognize that without them we have some serious 'splaining to do.

Post by **_Fortigurn** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 9:17 am

He couldn't buy a couple of tin plates, or hammer out a few baking trays? What's the issue here? Strang had much better plates, and I don't think he was a professional metallurgist.

Post by **_Sethbag** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 10:03 am

Metallurgy is the wrong term no matter what, unless Her Amun proposes that Joseph Smith, in addition to fabrication tin plates, also must have smelted the ore and created the particular alloy the plates were made of, on purpose, for particular desired traits. Well Nephi may have been a metallurgist when he "moltened" the ore and made iron tools, but nobody's saying Joseph Smith did that.

I agree there has to have been some sort of prop used, under the towel. I just don't buy the apologetic argument for osme really lightweight alloy of gold, called "gold" by Moroni, that would have been carryable by Joseph Smith. The problem is that most members don't stop to think that actual golden plates of the dimension as listed in the old sources would way a heck of a lot, and be hard to carry.

Post by **_Fortigurn** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 10:10 am

Sethbag wrote:Metallurgy is the wrong term no matter what, unless Her Amun proposes that Joseph Smith, in addition to fabrication tin plates, also must have smelted the ore and created the particular alloy the plates were made of, on purpose, for particular desired traits.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Why does it require him to be a metallurgist?

I agree there has to have been some sort of prop used, under the towel. I just don't buy the apologetic argument for osme really lightweight alloy of gold, called "gold" by Moroni, that would have been carryable by Joseph Smith. The problem is that most members don't stop to think that actual golden plates of the dimension as listed in the old sources would way a heck of a lot, and be hard to carry.

Exactly. If it's 'really lightweight gold', it's certainly not gold. It's not even a gold alloy, it's a something else alloy with a little bit of gold in it.

Post by **_beastie** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:12 pm

It's just a distortion of an argument in order to better defeat it.

One of their favorites, along this line, is to claim Joseph Smith would have had to had access to an IMMENSE library to write the Book of Mormon, whenever critics point out that certain information was known in Joseph Smith' time period.

Post by **_Jersey Girl** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:50 pm

Hmmm....this made me think of gold leaf.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_leaf

Post by **_guy sajer** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:04 pm

Fortigurn wrote:
Sethbag wrote:Metallurgy is the wrong term no matter what, unless Her Amun proposes that Joseph Smith, in addition to fabrication tin plates, also must have smelted the ore and created the particular alloy the plates were made of, on purpose, for particular desired traits.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Why does it require him to be a metallurgist?

I agree there has to have been some sort of prop used, under the towel. I just don't buy the apologetic argument for osme really lightweight alloy of gold, called "gold" by Moroni, that would have been carryable by Joseph Smith. The problem is that most members don't stop to think that actual golden plates of the dimension as listed in the old sources would way a heck of a lot, and be hard to carry.

Exactly. If it's 'really lightweight gold', it's certainly not gold. It's not even a gold alloy, it's a something else alloy with a little bit of gold in it.

The "something else alloy with a little bit of gold in it" plates doesn't quite have the same ring to it as "gold plates."

Post by **_Fortigurn** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:13 pm

Nor does 'tin baking trays with a smattering of gold leaf'.

Post by **_Jersey Girl** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:56 pm

Fortigurn wrote:Nor does 'tin baking trays with a smattering of gold leaf'.

What about flat pieces of cast iron with a smattering of gold leaf?

Can someone tell us what the thread title is?

Jersey Girl

Post by **_CaliforniaKid** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:06 pm

>>Exactly. If it's 'really lightweight gold', it's certainly not gold. It's not even a gold alloy, it's a something else alloy with a little bit of gold in it.

Well, Hyrum did say it was gold mixed with copper.