PRECIOUS METAL MAGIC

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 13 February 1926, Page 11

PRECIOUS METAL MAGIC

riiHE ancient alchemists thought there was a substance that would convert all baser metals into gold. This substance went by the name of the philosopher’s stone, although it generally took the form of a powder or amalgam, which was meant to drive out the impurities of the baser metals and leave, them in the form of pure gold. For ages this so-called delusion persisted, and the old alchemists spent many hours over their crucibles in a vain search. It was not really fruitless, however, for the search for one thing led to the discovery of many other things. It was in searching for this illusive treasure that Bottielier stumbled on the invention of Dresden porcelain, Roger Bacon on the composition of gunpowder, Geber on the properties of acids, Van Ilelmont on the nature of gases, aud Dr. Glauber on the famous “salts” that bear his name to this day. The search for a method of transmuting metals to gold, in fact, laid the foundation of modern chemistry and metallurgy. With the discovery of radium and radio-activity, however, began a new scientific era which has made some of the dreams of the old alchemists appear more reasonable, for it visualises the time when all substances may lie proved to be but manifestations of one elemental substance. How a chain has been made by a group of French scientists that the feat of transmuting silver into gold lias-been actually accomplished. The recipe is quite straight-forward. There is no magic in it. The ingredients, too. are simple. One hundred and twenty-live parts of chemically pure silver are melted in a clean crucible. To this is added seven parts of

CHANGING SILVER TO GOLD

yellow orphnent (arsenic trisulphide) anil three parts of antimony sulphide. This is fused together for about four hours at 1000 degrees Centigrade, and the result is a yellowish ingot. This ingot is melted again and ten parts of orpiment and five of antimony are added, little by little, to . the “stew,” which is kept at the same temperature as before for another four hours.

Then comes the last process of fluxing the ingot. Ten parts of saltpetre, and the same amounts of salamnioniac and borax mixed with a paste of scraped white soap are added to the “pot.” This cleans the molten metal, which again changes colour from gold to white. It is then poured out and cooled.

The investigators claim that the mass now consists of silver with an alloy of gold, the latter amounting to no more than one-quarter per cent, of the silver employed. It is said that the result has been tested and found invariable by many competent scientists, including qualified chemical engineers, and in view of the amazing developments of late years in the realm of chemistry the most conservative men of science are loth to deny this new one.

Indeed quite recently, Dr. Micthe, of Berlin, transmuted mercury into gold in a mercury vapour lamp, and wo know that diamonds of minute size were produced in a laboratory years ago. These experiments may be the prelude to a discovery that would knock the “gold standard” all awry, and, possibly, the bottom out of international exchange, for it is the comparative scarcity of gold, quite as much as its intrinsic properties of beauty and durability, that make it the foundations of the world’s financial system.