The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-03-17
GOLD NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
A Cheap alloy That Resists the Test
of acid as Perfectly as Pure Gold.

"A Cneap alloy Enat hSSlSCS the lest
of Acid as Perfectly as Pure Gold.
Copyright 1897
NEW YORK, March 16.--The misapplied
knowledge and dangerous skill OF an I'M
known expert in metals has recently effected
something here in New York that has
started a thrill of alarm and horror that
will spread quickly over the land, as the
ripples started by a stone dropped in q
quiet mill-pond spread until they reach the
shores.
His achievement is the production of q
comparatively cheap alloy that has the
color, weight and ductlity of gold, auG that
resists the test Of acid as pc featlY VS. gold
does. In short, it is, to all intents and pu-
poses, short of scientific chemical analysis
gold.
A few days since a prominent manufac-
turer of gold rings, Mr.. julius Wodiska
" ent to the office of a re6ner on John street
to see about the refining of some sweeps
from his factory. The reiuer handed him
small ingot that looked like gold and
asked him, ''What is thatP Mr.. Wcdisks
took up the acid bottle from the table be
side him and touched the yellow surface
The fluid took no effect. Then he rubbed
the ingot on the stone kept for testing pul'
IfuSeS unLlt u SOOu ibdEA was OBAaiut0 anu
put the acid on that.
Twelve carat gold" he replied decided
eddy as the result of his test.
There is not grain of gold in the whole
ingot,n responded the refiner
Mir. Wodlska sat down promptly on the
nearest stool and breathed 50 hard that he
got red in the face. He could not believe
IT, Again he made his tests this tine fling
into the ingot for the purpose. The acid
made the report as Def re to bis expel fenced
eye, Twelve carat gold"
Then the reiinec explained. The ingot
had been sent to him, for test, by one Of
his customers, who had been deluded into
buying it and had grown uneasy when
thinking how cheaplY he had got it, from
aud unknown man whose anxiety to effect
a priva sale Of it gave at least a question.
able color to his right of possession. The
refiner had tried it sufficiently to make sure
that it was not gold and approximately tC
got at a knowledge of what were its com.
ponenC Metals but had not yet made suffi.
GENTLY close guam itaJive analysis to deter
mine their prop rti MS He afii med that
1t was a mixture of platinum, aluminium
| copper and silver. 1t would seem that very
| great difficulties must have beeu encount-
er-d IN making such a c0mUinati IN, because
of the widely different melting points Of
| those metals, but he was sure that those
were the constitute lts Of the mass. A piece
of the alloy that he had put through the
rollers showed that it worked quite as wei
as gold and was as susceptible Of high pol
ish.
Si2ce then the keeper of. a small iewelry
store on Avenue A. has become the unhap
Ply possessor of another ingot of the new
alloy. lie also bougE from a man VIII
had evident preferences for strictly private
and quick sales even if he did not get full
gold value, and who volunteered no conf
dences as to Low he obtained the ingot, Il
looked to the storekeeper like quite a pretty
and profitable transaction until he took hi!
prize to an assayer.
How many more victims have beer
caught already by the modest metallurgist
who has invented this seductive material
there is no knowing, but they are no doubt
numerous. In each of the cases discovered
the ingOts have been small, such as would
be within the means of t o keepers Of little
shops and so find ready sale, especially when
the seller conveyed the impression that he
was a thief and was therefore willing to dis
pose of the chunk at less than its value. OF
course in vast ma lority Of INSTANCES the
victims would suffer their losses in silence.
when they learned how they had been
swindled rather than avow that they had
bought y hat they musthove supposed to be
stolen goods.
The pawnbrokers have vet to be heard
from. Doubtless they will bleed as freely
on the solid u carat gold iugots as they
did at one time on the yellow diamonds
dipped in aniline ink, before that trick was
discovered. The thing is bound to make
big trouble in the tents Of Israel if that
modest but talented metallurgist is at all
Industrious.
Inspector Byrnes has lying upon the ia
bic in his office big yellow bar OF II etal
that once did duty as ''gold brickp and
was the basis Of the biggest aud most fam
'ous Swindle of its kind ever perpetrated in
THIS country. 1t had a real gold corner,
that was cut off by the intending purchaser
and that assayed S well that he paid sever
al thousand dollars for the mass, only b.
learn that be had had assayed all there was
OF it that possessed any value. That was
considered pretty clever trick at the time
when it was played, but the new device of
having whole bar of solid I2-carat
bogus gold discounts it.
And the pawnbrokers and people who
buy gold cheap on speculation are not the
only ones whom it behooves TO take lively
interest in the new metal. Those fields will
soon be worked out, but the ability to make
the alloy will remain aud tbenext demons
tration Of it will be in solid god iewelry, y
turned out by unprincipled manufacturers
and sold at cheap prices 10 the public. There
will be no lack OF excuses to explain most fav-
orably its SUI prising cheapness, and who, of
ordinary Jewelry buyers, can tell that the
stuff is not gold when IL 30 perfect an I'M.
tation as to deceive even the very elect -
as one might say. j. II. CoNNELLY.