STARTLING CLAIM

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 236, 4 September 1929, Page 8

STARTLING CLAIM

MAKING OF GOLD. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 3. Gold for the making! That is the startling claim made by two Christchurch ' research workers. It means transmutation —a mystic word which has been on tho lips of scientists for centuries, and in a Christchurch laboratory, after 15 years of exacting and dangerous work, tho investigators claim to have succeeded by an electromagnetic process in transmuting certain elements into gold. What such •a discovery means to humanity beggars imagination. Tho principals are Mr G. P. Aston, electro chemist, and Mr H. W. Atack, a Christchurch solicitor. The results of the work of these two men have come under tho .notice of the New Zealand Government and possibly of the Imperial Government. In their well equipped laboratory both men have been juggling with the mysteries of the structure of the atom and the electron. The laboratory contains a specially built plant and the men have been submitted to no small amount of danger. As a matter of fact, there have been explosions and minor accidents. Scientists have agreed that transmutation would never be achieved until some greater energy than electricity was discovered —something that would transcend atomic energy and offer control over electrons. What was that greater energy ? The answer, it is claimed, came in the discovery bv Mr Aston of chromodyne, an electro-magnetic force ten times more powerful than electricity, which is associated with the force of gravitation. Wrapped up with this is new energy is the process of transmutation, but not transmutation as popularly understood. The experiments have not been carried out in Christchurch alone. A sum of £IO,OOO has been spent in research work in Queensland, Sydney, Wellington and other places. Professor Micte, tho German scientist claimed to have transmuted mercury into gold at a cost of £2OO an ounce. He died not long after that. The research workers at Harvard, at great cost, attempted to repeat the achievement of Professor Miete, but obtained a negative result. 'As evidence of tho marvellous powers of chromodyne, it is only necessary to point out that by its use any colour or shade of electric light can be given through all depths of colours of the spectrum, including black. A reporter was shown a sample of the gold which it is claimed was the result of transmutation.

IMPERIAL RESEACH INSTITUTE.

OPINION OF EXPERTS.

' “NOT TO BE TREATED SERIOUSLY.

'(Australian Press Association). Received September 4, 10.45 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 3. With reference to the cablegram from Christchurch, New Zealand, stating that Messrs Aston and Atack claim that they have succeeded in transmuting base metals into gold, the experts of b the Imperial Research Institute, when asked to comment, merely laughed and said:

“Somebody is nulling somebody’s leg. Such claims are not to be treated seriously.”