CHEAP GOLD FROM QUICKSILVER.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18266, 27 December 1924, Page 6

CHEAP GOLD FROM QUICKSILVER.

(raox ora om cobk>sfohi»ht.) SAN FRANCISCO, December 3. The "Scientific American," an enterprising weekly -periodical, has announced that it will direct an attempt to convert quicksilver into gold, during a series of experiments already in progress under Professor H. H. Sheldon, Department of Physics, New York University, and the editor of the publication, Mr E. E. Free, said: "We believe the effort will be successful. The experiments pribably will take from two to four months." He explained that Professor Sheldon's efforts would be directed toward confirming by a different process results claimed to have been achieved! by Professor Adolph Miethe during the past year at Charlottenburg 'J echnic-al College, Berlin. In the meantime a duplicate of the apparatus used by Professor Miethe is being sent to New York for study.

The apparatus now being set up at the New York University consists chiefly of a quartz lamp, which encloses various tubes and electric paraphernalia. The lamp will hold about a half-ounce of quicksilver vapour. The theory is that q. current of eleotricitv, of 170 volts and an amperage to be determined, will "crack" the atoms of quicksilver, "knock off" the 80th planetary electron which differentiates quicksilver from gold, and thus leave atoms with a planetary system of 70 electrons—pure gold. Mr Free declined to predict ' what effect upon the financial structure of nations the cheap manufacture of gold might have. In the industrial field, however, there certainly would be a "revolution," ho said, for "gold would replace copper in the making of chemical stills, telegraph and telephone wires, instruments, and machinery in numerous instances." "We believe our experiments will be successful," hj« continued. "Accurate records will be kept so that an estimate of the cost of producing gold may bo mad©. We shall make the best possibl© estimate of the time—if ever—when the world will have to face the threat of cheap gold."