The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1892-12-07
ARTIFICIAL GOLD.
yow ALCHEMl6TS USED TO MAKE
IT IN THE OLDEN TIME.

II Brought to MOsb Oh Aloih nm O''PFJ
ro+o-Tf one Failed to Carry Out an
rv+ravagant Promise He Lost His Life.
An American Turns Trick.
II has often been stated, and with
4,r+b that modern chemistry is indebted
f,r much of its knowledge to the al
,Io,ris+s Of old. whose experiments for
The purpose Of making gold by article
we're certainly extraordinary to the ut
most Doint of absurdity. Some of them
actually attempted to imprison the suns
ravs. which they tried to calcine and
row7er. the rays being supposed to con-
sistof nure golden sparks. Others sought
to Obtain the philosophers stone, which
was TO transmute all other metals into
cold. from honey, sugar, wine, blood, and
even raiuwater. Dead bodies were dug
I'D from their graves, and .saltpeter was
extracted from them to Serve as an in
Gradient, Still others believed that gold
grew from seed, other metals merely fur
nishing fruitful soil in which the yell
low germs developed like plants.
In work now rare, called the ellis
tory of Ancient Pharmacy" it is men
toned that Raymond Nully was said to
have transformed $4,000 pounds of mer-
curry into gold for the English King Ed
ward Ill and that from this supply of
the yellow metal the first rose mobiles
were coined. The credibility Of the
story is somewhat diminished, however,
by the circumstance that tho same mon
arch was soon after obliged to coin
money from his own and the Queens
crown, and from the golden vessels Of
churches and cloisters. 1t is gravely re-
corded that the Emperor Frederic III, on
Jan, IS, 1913, at Prague, changed three
pounds of mercury into two and one
half pounds Of gold by means of one
grain of a lead powder given to him by
man named Richthausen. He created
this man Baron of Chaos, and from the
gold a medal was made which bore an
inscription referring to its artificial ori-
gin. This medal was long preserved in
the Vienna treasury.
In 1905 Saxon lieutenant named Pay
kull was taken prisoner by Charles XII
at Warsaw and condemned to death.
He promised to make 100000 worth
Of gold each year if his life were spared.
In the presence of witnesses Paykuu
changed six ounces of lead into gold by
means Of a tincture which contained
antimony, sulphur and saltpeter among
other ingredients. Out Of this gold
medals were stamped. But Paykull
must have failed in subsequent attempts,
BECAUSE he was afterward executed. If
this goose had been able to lay real
golden eggs it is to be presumed that he
would not have met with SO melancholy
fate
The business of manufacturing gold
IN those days seems to have been an eX-
tremely dangerous one, commonly
bringing persons who pursued 1t to
violent death. George Honauer promised
totransform thirty-six hundredweighto of
IRON into gold for the princeof Wurtem-
berg. The prince detected boy, who had
been concealed in the laboratory in the
act Of putting gold in the crucible. He
thereupon ordered an iron gallOws to DO
constructed, from which the imprudent
faklr was hanged in 1897. Two other
gOldmakers were likewise hanged from
This same gallows at Stuttgart in 1906
and 1913 respectively.
In 1917 man named Krohnemann en-
tered the service of the marquis of
Brandenhurg with the rank of colonel.
I've soon won reputation as gOldmaker,
and was given charge of the mint and
mines. Subsequently he was suspected
OF fraud, and on his trial it was proved
that he had stolen gold and silver from
The treasury of the margrave for use in
the deception. He was condemned to be
hanged.
A quack named Daniel supplied Ital-
ian apothecaries with a wonderful gold
powder called ''usufur," which was sup
posed to have astonishing medicinal
value. Pretending that the art of COM
pounding this usufur with other drugs
was mystery known only to himself,
he directed his patients not to permit
Ihe apothecaries to mix the ingredients
Oh his prescriptions, but to buy them,
including the usufur, and bring them to
MN for putting together. He mixed the
ofugs, emitting the usufur, in which
manner he succeeded in having restored
70 him the gold powder, previously sold
Dy MIN at a high price to the apothe-
carries. The powder soon became ia
mons. and the nuacL 6DoI1v offara6 70