CURIOUS ATTEMPTS TO TURN SILVER INTO GOLD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2295, 24 February 1898, Page 49

CURIOUS ATTEMPTS TO TURN SILVER INTO GOLD.

A seasatiooal announcement baa been made that; aa American chemist of repute, Df Emmens, has discovered a method by which he can turn silver into gold. Ha claims that the cost of the' process involved, though rather high, yet leaves a balance sufficient to return an enormous profit on tha transaction. Dr Emmens asserts that in the course of his investigations he has discovered a new element, to which he baa given the name argent-aurura, or sj'iver-gold, claiming tha'; Ib lies between gold ucd silver, and he "states that he discovers this element to exist in silver, ready to be made to undergo the slight change whioU will turn It into gold by means of his treat; ment— chiefly great pressure. Sir William Orookes, however, states that he has submitted Emmens's gold sample to spectroscopio analysis, and "could, jioi di»«OTM f»

Single line which belongs to an unknown element." It does not thence follow of necessity that argent-aururn has no existence, or that Dr Emmens is merely trying to " take a rise " out of Europe with his tale ; but nothing is proved as to how he got the gold that he ssnds. T.here is clearly no reason at present to believe in the discovery, therefore, other than the degiee of reliance which we may be disposed to place on the bare statement of Dr Emmens that he does produce argentaurum from silver, and thence transmutes argent-aurum into gold. In this age of wonders it is well not to be too sceptical, and very clever men in all times have believed that it must be possible to ascertain how gold ia produced. The theory .which Dr Emmens states as the one that he' has followed is not at all new, but, on the contrary, dates back to tbe Middle Ages. It is that there is but one fundamental matter in the universe, and that what ars known as tbe " chemical elements" are only modes of that universal substance wbicb, under varying conditions, takes on the different forms that are called "the elements." Two hundred years ago a process* was announced to have been discovered for multiplying gold, which was so plausible that the greatest men of science of the day — Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton — were both connected vrith the effort. The work of the alchemists, as those were called who endeavoured to make gold), is infinitely older than the days of Newton. A chemist and a magician were supposed to bs terms that meant the same thing in the Middle Ages, and Roger B^con, Paracelsus, and the rest of the great students of Nature who laid the foundations of our present knowledge — in darkness, it ia true, but often with wonderful insight — all had visions dancing before them of discovering two things : a universal remedy for disease and a means of making gold. Ths latter was called the "philosopher's stone," and was supposed, when added to the teaser metals, to refine out of them those qualities which made their baseness and to leavs behind pure gold. Bach of the old alchemists was eaid by his competitors from time to time to be in possession of this wonderful knowledge, but no individual amongst them ever owned on his own account that he had succeeded. In 1455, King Henry VI granted a patent to an investor who believed that he wa» able to produce gold, and under this patent he was entitled to make gold enough to enable the King to pay all the debts of the Crown in real gold. Theforga at which this attempt was carried on stood vrhere is now Pall Mall. In Queen Elizabeth's time there lived a celebrated astrologer and alcbemisfc called Dr Dee, -who seems to have been & clever conjurer. He announced that he had found out how to make Bilver from copper, and invited Qaeen Elizabeth to visit his laboratory, where he showed her a oopper frying-pan from which a piece had been cat out, and then the piece exactly fitting the hole turned into pure silver. The same exercise of faith was asked from Queen Elizabeth that Dr Emmens aßks from us to-day. There was the silver, undoubtedly : as to how it came there was where the faith was required. Various deliberate impostures were carried out by different alchemists, by means of which they pretended to make gold in the presence of other persons. In one case it was found that tbe vessel in which the alchemy was conduoted was made with a false bottom ; the gold was hidden underneath. The vessel could be inspected, and then tbe various mysterious oompounds were placed in it, and ultimately the gold was found at the bottom, the fact being that the false metal above had melted away by the application of heat, leaving the gold visible. Again, hollow rods containing some gold, closed at the end invisibly with wax, were used to stir the crucibles ; the wax wonld melt, and the gold run out, to be found when the mixture cooled. The object, of coarse, was to persuade the possessors of real honest gold in the shape of money to part with it to the alchemists for the purpose of the perfection and completion of the experiments. Bat it is quite likely that several of the alchemists who Bupposed or professed that they had found gold were either mad or deceived. The cases of perhaps the two last of the alchemists (before JDr Emmens) present an instance of each mode of deception. On May 6, 1782, a series of experiments in making gold was began by a really illus- i fcricus chemist named James Price, F.RS. After some experiments that failed, he at last announced that he had discovered a powder that he found was capable of turning mercury into gold. He called together, on the 25th of the same month in which he had commenced bis experiments (so quickly had he discovered the great Becret, as he believed), a large assemblage of peers, chemists, lawyers, and clergymen, and in their presence he apparently transmuted mercury into gold by adding to the former a certain secret powder that he said he had discovered. Some of this gold was offered to, and graciously accepted by, the king, George 111. A sensation was produced. The University of Oxford offered the dis.overer an honorary degree, and the public bgerly bought up two editions of a book jbat he published. But many of his colleagues in the Royal Society were not satisfied by the loose tests applied by the mixed assemblage before which Price had operated, and they asked him to submit to a test arranged by the society itself. After being much pressed, Price at last profeßsed his willingness, at the end of a month, to satisfy the Royal Society. He returned to his laboratory at Gnildford and began operations by distilling a quantity of the deadly poison of the laurel. He next made his will, and though he was in perfect health, it began : " Believing that lam about to die." Six months then passed away, and at last he issued his summons to the Royal Society. Three of its members attended bis laboratory. He received them with cordiality, and pretended to be making preparations for his experiment, but suddenly put a bottle to his mouth .and drank from it, and in a few moments fell dying at their feet. He had called them there to see him drink the laurel water and die, as hie penance for bis deceit -—conscious or mistaken. Many explanations were hazarded of this affair, and a jsomewhafe similar occur-

i rence in Germany soon after that which was fully explained may supply the real clue. There a grave professor, who had announced that he had found the way of procuring gold (in small quantities, I certainly; but if it can be done at all, the modus operaudi for obtaining good quantities is only a matter of time and management), suddenly discovered that the gold that he bad been nsed to find in his crucible had turned into a mere sort of brass, the stuff called " Dutch metal." He wisely called in the police to unravel the mystery, and they soon discovered it. The good chemist had an old and attached servant, who, to save his master from disappointment, had been in the habit of purchasing a little gold leaf and slipping it secretly into the mess in the crucible I But the old servant, being called away for a time, had entrusted his wife with the money to purchase the gold leaf, and instructed her to put it in the crucible, and this woman had used the money for her own drink, buying "Patch metal " to pop in the crucible instead I With the shout of laughter that this discovery caused to riDg throughout Europe (in which the deceived chemist bad the sense to heartily join) the really scientific attempts at slaking the thirst for gold by making mixtures in a crucible may be said to have come to an end until the present moment. Bat so recently as 1828 Mr Kellerman, of Lilley, a village between Luton and Hitchin, was reputed to have found the great seciet, and he was visited in the year just mentioned by Sir Richard Paillipp, who found him living absolutely secluded, locking him-sc-lC in a room full of cruciblep, retorts, jar?, and varioa3 shaped and sized bottles, with old books piled one on another, and a sufficient quantity of dust over all to make the whole like a picture of Tenierß. The alchemist assured his visitor that he had indeed disovered how to make gold, being guided in his researches by the writings of the old authorities, Roger Bacon, Paracelsus, and others. After snff eriug many disappointments, he [ had at length discovered the key to their j proceedings, which they bad concealed with I studied ambiguity, and he bad learned to make gold, bad made it, and could produce it in such quantities jthat he could pay off tbe national debt, or do anything else he pleased. Asked why he did not do some-such public benefaction, he answered that ifc was because j mankind had treated him so badly, with such I contempt and neglect, that he was resolved \ to do nothing for thfin, but to let his secret benefit nobody and die with him. Bat on leaving the alchemish the, traveller met a man who had bees employed for eight years as his assistant, and Jie declared that Mr Koilerman had never made any gold ; for he was quite sure that if be had made such a discovery he could not have concealed it from his assistants, whiis, on the contrary, they had witnessed his severe disappointments at the termination of his most elabo- ; rate experiments. That unfortxmats experimenter, in his tvs- ,- pioion of all mankind, his belief that all j were against him, and that he must piobecfc > his life by padlocks and pißtols, exhibited j certainand well-known symptoms of insanity ; . and it is likely that the same reeult was pro- I duoed in many other earlier cases by tha ', f ruitlese and painful search for gold, the ua- ; slaked thirst, and the contiuual mirage that this method of gold-&eekiDg implies, !