The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-05-11
SEA TREASURE SEARCH
The Curious and Successful Experiment
Of German Chemist.
Dreams of Wealth to be Realized by
h Use of a Device that
Does Away With
Pumps.

York Times, will understand why the pur-
suit of hidden gold or sunken treasure
exercises a strange witchery over mems
minds. But IL there be any truth in q
reported discovery which a German
chemist claims to AVE made, marine
tr~easure-hunters may expect to enter
upon wealth, even beyond the dream of
~avaricc. BY his new method all modern
contrivances for raising ships-the steam
pumps, diving bells. submarine telescopes
and other mechanical apparatus-may be
cast aside as useless. The most ingenious
engineering devices, il is believed, will he
entirely eclipsed by a product Of the
chemists neutrality-suspicious. acid gas.
This gas, it seems, is capable OF being
reduced to a liquid state by subjscting X
To an immense pressure, which. being
removed, lets the gas again assume its
gareous form.
Now, this German chemist, named
Reithmann, vas forcibly struck with the
use that might be made OF this fact in
raising sunkcn vessels and recovering
treasures lost in the deep. Some time ago
he had advanced sufficiently far with his
application of the discovery to test its
efficiency In deep waters on "A large block
Of granite. Having been sunk in the har-
bor, q diver was sent down To attach to
10 the block an iron box containing lique-
fled carbonic acid gas. The box, which
had five iron plates provided with faucets,
was, il is stated, inclosed in a canvas,
folded like a balloon. The diver then
opened the faucets, leaving the gas to in
Hate the canvas with the liquifled carbon.
which resumed its normal gaseous form
as fast as IL was relieved from the pres
sure of the iron box. A few minutes after
this had been done, report says, the
upper portion or the canva 1.-THE gas be-
ing lighter than the water, but heavier
tlat thn atrt slax.lv roo. a., al. ..E...
carrying attached below the granite block.
just as any regular balloon carries its car.
According to the opinion OF experts,
Herr Reithman's discovery and its appli-
cation will mark a new era in the history
of marine treasure seeking. For ages
people have known the precise spots
where there have been great wrecks.
where argosics of the rich merchants of
Genoa u Venice, or Spanish galleons
laden with the precious produce of the
mines n river sands of Mexico and
Peru had struck on rocks aud foundered.
Indeed, the unfathomed leaves Of ocean,
and the shore water which may be faith
omed are full of all the relics of old times
that Clarence saw in. his vision.
Marine treasure hunting Is n spor
more romantic by far than that of the desc
Grafton OF graves on dry land. We may
not know much about the dead who are
buried with their wealth, but we
are sure that they meant il to
remain undisturbed. The original own
ers of the gold and silver and pre-
of the deep had just the opposite inten-
ton. They wanted to throw their COM
modities upon the open market. IL is not
a pious effort that would fulfill this de-
sire?
Judged by legend and history, the
Spaniards seem To ave endowed the Ne
reids with the greatest number Of unwil-
ing gifts. Their plate fleets aud treasure
gallcous are scattered on every coast, from
Cape Horn To Tree, from the Hebrides
and Orkneys to Vigo Bay. Storms seem
To nave been English in the days of Span
ish supremacy in America, just as Provi
dence, according to Allison, was tory at
the beginning of this century. .A1iat
Deus 81 d~issipdnfur" was the motto Of the
English sailor at that time. The gale
ons OF the ARMADA are still the:dream of
many on the wild shores of Ireland and of
the western Highlands. Americans and
Englishmcn have not forgotten the reefs
n narrows where %galleons went down.
Local tradition has in many places mark
ed the precise spot.
IL this new way of raising vessels
should ever be brought To bear with good
results perhaps the question Of the Span
ish plate-ships which the English sunk In
Vigo Bay what Is more to the pur.
pose. whether the silver is still on board
will be definitely settled. There can bs
no VI Is W TIT SHIPS : Dtt, tnDuXl III
seems almost a pity to shake an ancien,
belief, the chances that the silver is else.
whcre-perhaps i'm circulation-are yer,
strong. No one knows what has becom.
~ IL or who the lucky people were that re
covered IL, and IL Is perhaps not abso
lutcly certain that there was any To re
cover. Thcse facts may have beer
known To many generations of disap
pointed treasurc-seekers. but il they knew
they have kept the secret to themselves.
his Is natural enough; no one likes 4
proclaim his W failure. No one is sorr,
Ia see Others fall into the trap which dc
ceiyed himself. The fox hunter in tn.
story who fell into a marsh ON the further
side of the fence held his tongue, and soor
had plenty OF company. In the same wa,
one may fancy successive sets of explor
ers OF Nigo Bay, or of any other poinI
where treasure j. believed to AVE beer
lost, grinning over the hopes of sanguin,
successors. Some years ago a Frenci
company began operations and declared
or are aid to have declared, that they
found articles of silver plate. The greal
war, or some other good reason, made
them desist from their enterprise.
Wonderful stories have come up from
the Caribbean sea of wealth brought C
the surface there, while succeeding
searchers have failed utterly. Now, lei
some c~nterprising person apply the car
bonic acid gas principle 10 the raising oi
the old hulks, n once they are at the
surface OF the treasure-hunters can de
terrnine AT their leisure whether the golt
and silver and precious gems are bidder
In them. The chances are that shoult
the hulks eve be found, very lit lie be
You'd that would ever be discovered to re
ward the hunters either for their time OF
their outlay.
why She Hated French.