Arizona republican., 1892-12-20
ARTIFICIAL GOLD.
AoW ALcHeMlSTS USED TO MAKE IT IN THE oLDEN TIME.


 Extravasant Promise He Lost His Life.
 An American Turns Trick.
 It has often been stated, and with futh, that modern chemistry is indebted br much uf it's knowledge to the al- chemists of old, whose experiments for (le purpose of making gold by artiice were certainly extraordinary to the ut 4ost point of absurdity, Some of them actually attempted to imprison the suns says, which oney tried to calcine and powder, the rays being supposed to con list of pure goldensparks. Others sought 0 obtain the philosophers stone, which Gas to transmute all other metals into gold, from honey. sugar, wine, blood, and ¥ rainwater Dead bodies were dug CD from their graves. and saltpeter was e1tracted from them to serve as an in- gredient. Still others believed that gold grew from seed, other metals merely fur Sishing a fruitful soil in which the yell low germs developed like plants.
 In work pow rare, called the His Cory of Ancient Pharmacy," it is men, Goned that Raymond Nully was said to ksve transformed 10000 pounds of mer- cnry into gold for the English King Ed yard III, and that from this supply of the yellow metal the first rose nobles were coined. The credibility of the Etory is somewhat diminished, however. hy the circumstance that the same mon- rch was soon after obliged to coin honey from his own and the queens Gown, and from the golden vessels of churches and cloisters. It is gravely re- ebrded that the Emperor Frederic III, on Ian. l5, !C.s, tt Prague, changed three teunds of mercury into two and one kalf pounds of gold by means of one grain of lead powder given to him by ( ll&u named Richthausen. He created fhis man Baron of Chaos. and from the gold a medal was made which bore an hscription referring to it's artificial ori- gin. This medal was long preserved in fhe Vienna treasury.
 In l705 a Saxon lieutenant named Pay kull was taken prisoner by Charles XII ct Warsaw and condemned to death. Re promised to make $1.0OO,000 worth Cf gold each year if his life were spared. kn the presence of witnesses Paykull changed six ounces of lead into gold by nneans of a tincture which contained xntimony, sulphur and saltpeter among dther ingredients Out of this gold medals were stamped. But Paykull snust have failed in subsequent attempts, because he was afterward executed. If Ihis goose had been able to lay real golden eggs it is to be presumed that he would not have met with so melancholy xfate.
 The business of manufacturing gold tn those days seems to have been an ex- Gemely dangerous one, commonly bringing persons who pursued it to a violent death. George Honauer promised tetransforIn thirty-six hundredweighto of Iron into gold for the prince of Wurten- 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 be Constructed, from which the imprudent fakir was hanged in l697. Two other Coldmakers were likewise hanged from fhis same gallows at Stuttgart in 1906 and l13S respectively.
 In lG17 man named Krohnemann en- tered the service of the marquis of Brandenburg with the rank of colonel. He soon won reputation as goldm Iker, and was given charge of the mint and nlines. Subsequently he was suspected q 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 banged.
 A quack named Daniel supplied Ital- fan apothecaries with wonderful gold powder called ''usufur," which was sup. posed to have astonishing medicinal Salue. Pretending that the art of con- pounding this uSufur with other drugs was q mystery known only to himself, be directed his patients not to permit tie apothecaries to mix the ingredients Qf his prescriptions, but to buy them, Including the usufur, and bring them to bim for putting together. He mixed the drugs, omit,mg the usufur, in which AldiAtCE Hc HlCOOGOCu III lidN lIl3 IcoJOISu t. him the gold powder, previously sold by him at d nigh price to the apothe- CIries. The powder soon became fa- nous, and tue quack finally offered to teach Duke Cosmos II of Florence the srt of making gold. The duke paid Daniel 10000 ducats for the secret, and tle swindler fed to France with the nOney.
 Count Cajetan in 1705, in the presence Gi Frederick of Prussia, changed one pound of mercury into gold by means of red tincture. Subsequently he prom ted to make $6, ,O00, 900 worth of gold in sx weeks, but, failing to keep his word, De was hanged. draped in gold leaf, Which became the customary method of dealing with alchelnists. The tribe of slchemists is not yet entirely extinct. h 1880 an American named Wise duped 6 member of the Rohan family and Collateral descendant of the ''pecklace Cardinal" whom CGgliostro deceived by Pretending to make gold. Wise got a considerable sum of money from Rohan s-l a~-c--~-l 0rly q few days aro