Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1893-04-29
ARTIFICIAL GOLD.
HOW AIcHgMlSTS USED TO MAKE
1T IN THE oLDEN TIME.
It Brought to Mcst Of Them an Unhappy
Fate-if One Failed to Carry Out nm
Extravagant Promise lie Lost His Life.
An American Turns Trick.

Eate-ff One Failed To Carry Out an
Extravagant Promise lie Lost His Life.
An American Turns "a Trick.
IL has often been stated, and with
TRUTH that modern chemistry is indebted
for much Of its knowledge TO the al
chemists of old, whose experiments for
the purpose of making gold by artifce
We're certainly extraordinary to the ut
most point of absurdity. Some of them |
actually attempted TO impyison the SUMS |
rays, which they tried TO calcine and
powder, the rays being supposed TO con-
sist of pure golden sparks Others sought
to obtain the philosophers stone, which
was To transmute all other metals into
gold, from honey, sugar, wine, blood, and
even rainwater. Dead bodies were dug
up from their graves. and saltpeter was
extracted from them to serve as an in
gredient. Still others believed that gold
grew from seed, other metals merely fur
nishing fruitful soil in which the ytl-
low germs developed like plants.
In a work now rare, called the His
tory of Ancient Pharmacy" it is mem
toned that Raymond Nnlly 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
We're coined. The credibility of the
story is somewhat diminished, however,
by the circumstance that the same mon
arch was soon after obliged 10 coin
money from his own and the queens
crown. ana from the golden vessels OF
churches and cloisters. Ii is gravely re-
corded that the Emperor Frederic Ill, on
Jan. 10, 1913, at Prague, changed three
pounds of mercury iuto two and one
half pounds Of gold by means of one
grain of q 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 10 its artificial ORR
| gin. This medal was long preserved in
\ the Vienna treasury,
I In 1905 a Saxon lieutenant named Pay
kull was taken prisoner by Charles XII
\ at Warsaw and condemned to death.
He promised to make $l,OOO,O0O worth
] of gold each year If his life were spared.
In the presence of witnesses Paykull
changed six ounces of lead into gold by
means Of tincture which contained
antimony, sulphur and saltpeter among
other ingredients. Ont Of this gold
medals were stamped. But Paykull
must have failed i'll subsequent attempts,
because he was afterward executed. IL
this goose had been able to lay real
golden eggs it is 10 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 it to a
violent death. George Honauer promised
TO transform thirty-six hundredweighto oi
iron into gold for the prince Of Wurtem
berg. The prince detected boy, who had
been concealed in the laboratory, in the
act of putting gold in the crucible. BE
thereupon ordered an iron gallows 10 be
constructed, from which the imprudent
fakir was hanged in 1907. Two other
goldmakers were likewise hanged from
this same gallows at Stuttgart in 1906
and 1913 respectively.
In 1877 man named Krohnemann en-,
4
, Brandenburg with the rank of colonel
He 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 il
I the deception. He was condemned to bt
, hanged.
, A quack named Daniel supplied Ttal
. ian apothecaries with wonderful gold
! powder called "usufur." which was sup
posed 10 have astonishing medicinal
value. Pretending that the art of com
, pounding this usufur with other drug;
> was mystery known only to himself
! he directed his patients not TO permit
the apothecaries to mix the ingredients
q of his prescriptions, but to buy them
a including the usufur. and bring them tC
him for putting together. He mixed the
drugs, emitting the usufur, in which
1 manner he succeeded in having restored
q TO him the gold powder, previously sold
q by him at high price to the apothe
a carries. The powder soon became ia
I. mons. and the quack finally offered tt
n teach Duke Cosmos Ii of Florence tn,
I art of making gold The duke pait
+ Daniel 10000 ducats for the secret, and
the swindler fled to France with tn,
money.
Count Cajetan in i705, in the presenc,
Of Frederick Of Prussia, changed on,
pound of mercury into gold by means o.
a red tincture. Subsequently he prom
ised to make 50 DOC. QUO worth of gold il
six weeks, but, failing to keep his word
he was hanged, draped in gold leaf
; which became the customary method o
h dealing with alchemists. The tribe o
& alchemists is not yet entirely extinct
> In 1850 an American named Wise dupes
l. member of the Rohan family and |
10 collateral descendant of the ''necklacl
r cardinal" whom Caglostro deceived b,
10 pretending TO make gold. Wise got
% considerable sum of money from Rohal
,e and decamped. Only few days ag
+ the writer picked mp a little pamphle
,e ON booksiall in New York which con
D. tained several pages of advertisement
:, of a substance for transmitting othe
ID metals into gold, the price being onl,
e. FIVE dollars Washington Star.
The Twelfth Juryman.