LDS periodical the MILLENIAL STAR reprints an interview with William Smith, brother of Joseph Smith and former Apostle. When asked if he'd seen the plates he replies, "I did not see them uncovered, but I handled them and hefted them while wrapped in a tow frock and judged them to have weighed about sixty pounds. I could tell they were plates of some kind and that they were fastened together by rings running through the back. Their size was as described in mother's history." When asked , "Did any others of the family see them?" he replies, "Yes, Father and my brother Samuel saw them as I did while in the frock. So did Hyrum and others of the family." When asked, ""Din't you want to remove the cloth and see the bare plates?" Smith responds, "No, for father had just asked if he might not be permitted to do so, and Joseph, putting his hand on them said; 'No, I am instructed not to show them to any one. If I do, I will transgress and lose them again.' Besides we did not care to have him break the commandment and suffer as he did before."
[Source: http://www.advent-adam.com/jakestand.html (cached, now defunct)]
The entire William Smith interview with RLDS Apostle Edmund C. Briggs (with RLDS 70 John W. Peterson as scribe) is included in Early Mormon Documents, edited by Dan Vogel, 1:510-513.
ReplyDeleteGold plate calculations based on available source data and variation of 3 key parameters:
ReplyDelete6 inches x 8 inches x. 010 inches x .698 lbs/cubic inches x 180 = 60.3 lbs. (consistent testimony of Wm.Smith).
6 inches by 8 inches (per HC 4:537 - Joseph Smith Letter to John Wentworth - Mar.1,1842).
.010 = plate thickness [parameter 1].
.698 = density of pure gold.
180 [parameter 2] = total number of plates (60 translated (1/3), 120 sealed (2/3) per JOD 3:347 (Orson Pratt discourse: Apr.13,1856).
6 inches total thickness of gold plate volume (per HC 4:537) = (.010 inch x 180) + (.023 inch air space gap between plates [parameter 3] x 179 plate gaps) = 1.8 inches + 4.12 inches = 5.92 inches. Plates that thin would of course not be perfectly flat as the result of hammering during their fabrication.