Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1878-10-11
Swindling Adepts,

One Leonhard Thurneiser tried his
swindling skill upon the Elector John
George of Brandenburg, with very in-
different success, as he had to fly for his
life. Berlin altogether was not pro-
pitious to adopts and their doings. One
of the last of the class, Caetano (styling
himself Count Ruggiero,) the son of a
Neapolitan peasant-a kind of precur-
sor of Joseph Balsamo-after having
successfully swindled the courts of Mu-
mich and Vienna, came to premature
end in the city on the Spree in 1903,
being hanged on tall gallows ironi-
cally plastered all over with gold-leaf.
John Frederick Bottger, or Bottiger,
or Bottcher, who gave the world Meis-
sen porcelain instead of gold, was born
at Schleitz, in Germany, in 1852. His
father was master of the mint at Mag
deburg, which naturally directed the
attention of young John Frederick to
metallurgical researches, which again
led the youth to the study of alchemy
Apprentieed to an apOthecary at Berlin,
distinguished pharmaceutist named
Zorn, he secretly pursued his alchemist-
ic studies in the dead of night, using
llAS . Nlbll uO SIDdIlu2
hand. Being found out at last, he fled
in 1899. Starvation drove him back a
year after. Zorn generously forgave
his delinquencies, upon his sacred prom
Use to drop alchemy forever. This
promise he broke of course, and had to
leave Berlin once more. He went to
Wittenberg, where he found protect
or in Prince Egon of Furstenberg, who
took him to Dresden in. 170l, when he
was only nineteen, and built labora-
tory for him. Here he experimental
at the expense of his patron, and of the
Elector Augustus III. of Saxony, King
of Poland, who at last got tired of
spending his money for nothing, and
pressed the would-be adept so hard
that the latter again tried his old game
of running away. He was brought
back, however, and the indignant Au-
gustus demanded, in the most peremp-
tory manner, written statement of
Bottcher's scheme of gold-making
The interesting youth furnished his
Angry Polish Majesty with long, un-
Ineligible rigmarole, and was forth
with sent to prison in consequence.
Now at this very time Count Tschirn-
hausen had conceived the project of
turning to useful account, for the man
ufacture of porcelain, boraX, etc, GER
tain minerals and clays lying about un-
used in some parts of SaXony. Tschirn-
hausen, who thought he detected in
young Bottcher, beneath the crust of
empiric charlatanry, much solid chem
ical knowledge and vast ingenuity and
aptitude, begged the elector-King to
hand his prisoner over to him. AS
early as 1705 the young man found that
a certain brownish-red clay about Meis-
sen would produce finer and more
durable porcelain than his new chief
had as yet been able to obtain. The
lucky discoverer was rewarded with
rich gifts, but he was kept prisoner
under strictest watch and guard, the
elector-king having still notion that
the talented young chemist could really
make gold if he would but choose to do
so. When the victorious Swedes in
vaded Saxony in 1706 Bottcber and
three assistants of his were packed off
to the Konigstein. In 1907 they were
brought back to Dresden.
In 1908, after Tschirnhausen's death,
Bottcher succeeded him as administra-
tor of the porcelain manufacture. The
year after he discovered the white pOr-
celain clay Detected, some ten years
later on, in reasonable correspond
ence with certain parties in Berlin, it
would have gone hard with him, had
not death stepped in to shield him from
the penal consequence of his offense
He died on the 18th of March, 1919, in
his thirty-eighth year.
The last would-be transmuter ofmet-
ais, with brief allusion to whom this
paper is brought to an appropriate
close, was DR.. James Price, an English
physician, who declared before the
Royal Society of England that he had
discovered a red and white transmu-
tation powder, which would convert
the baser metals into silver and into
gold. Hard pressed for explanations
and details in support of his bold as
sertion, he poisoned himself in the
year 1888.
In our own time promoters of more
or less limited ioint-stock swindles have
successfully taken the place of the
cheats who impudently paraded before
the world as adopts and professors of
great and glorious science. -Harpey's $
Weekly.
FEATHERS will be universally worn
this winter. Fashion Item. Guess not.
We shall not wear feathers--not a soli-
tary feather. If our friends choose TO
make themselves ridiculous. thew can