Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-16
HOW ELECTRICITY DUPEs.
The Ignorant Believe Anything Can
BE Done With 1t.

From the New York Mail and Express.
The expose Of Freund's electrical sugar re-
fning process has created panic among GER
tain floating spectators who oftentimes have
more credulity than money. A MdR and Err
press reporter asked wealthy Spectator at
the Fifth Avenue hotel, who is opposed to all
secret processes, how he accounted for such
blind faith on the part of the stockholders of
Freund's humbug. He said: ''The very men,
ton Of electricity to men who have no scien-
tific knowledge of il is bait to their credulity
and cupidity. If Edison should say he could
convert dirt into rubies or diamonds by means
of electricity he would find moneyed
men to back him. They would think
it possible for electricity to do any
thing. because so much has already been done
with it. Freund knew the value of electricity
to draw dupes. SO many men have made for
tunes of late through electrical inventions, he
found everything propitious to launch his
gigantic humbug. If any of the stockholders
had gone to Edison, who is not a visionary, but
practical in all he does, he could have ex-
planned to them in two minutes the utter I'M
possibility of electricity converting raw sugar
into refined, clarified sugar. The man who is
a secret, as a rule. fears the light shrewd
detective could have saved these gullible stock
holders their money if they had simply put
him to guard and report the movements of
Freund. make it rule never to invest in
any enterprise unless 1 know everything about
it. have kept out of electricity because 1
know nothing about it."
Were you every solicited to go into secret
enterprise?'
Yes, several times. but I refused. Once a
thin, pale man came into my office and said he
wanted to speak to me alone. told him that
did not care If my private secretary heard
him. He objected and the secretary retired.
Then heard an extraordinary tale which 1
shall relate briefly. He declared that he had a.
process which would produce a liquid force
greater than steam or any known force. Three
drops of the liquid would run an engine from
New York to San Francisco A bottle full
would blow up Manhattan Island. / said that
he had undoubtedly found the force that Kelly
was looking for. He said Keely's force, known
as etheric molecular force, was child's play
compared to his liquid He wanted me to SUBJ
scribe for SO many thousand shares and
and be president of the company. 1 asked
him how he made his liquid. That was
to be secret with him, and to come to
me when he died. For years, he said,
he worked in a chemical laboratory and one
time by mistake he mixed some liquids. The
mixture proved. upon experiment, to be more
powerful than dynamite. With one drop he
shattered a large iron anvil The last state
ment was enough for me. / told him there
was too much force in the world already, and
so got rid of him. l have had many schemes
as wild as that offered to me to go into that
had no secret attached to them. There was
Tom Nichols bicycle railroad. invented by
Boynton, of Massachusetts. Nichols used to
have models made of bicycle cars and roll
them back and forth in his room. There was
one track on the ground and one above the
cars. Nichols claimed the cars would go 200
miles per hour. / told him the passengers
would have their breaths taken away by such
rapid motion. never took any stock in snap
inventions, and never shall"