The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1893-02-02
ARTIFICIAL GOLD.
HOW ALCHEMlSTS USED TO MAKE
1T IN THE OLOEN TIME.

1t has often been stated, and with
truth, that modern chemistry is indebted
for much of it's knowledge to the al
chemists of old, whose experiments for
the purpose of making gold by artifce
were certainly extraordinary to the ut
most point Of absurdity. Some of them
actually attempted TO imprison the suns
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 a fruitful soil in which the yell
low germs developed like plants.
In a work now rare, called the His
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 III, and that from this supply of
OhO JCIAO" IliCldl ILO UISG IOSC lCDIcS
were coined. The credibility of the
story is somewhat diminished, however,
by the circumstance that the 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
a 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 orr
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 81 900, 900 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 d tincture which contained
anthony, sulphur and salGpeter among
II OlIltE lHS I6btcIlIS. OuG Oh IulS SOlu
medals were stamped. But Paykull
must have failed in subsequent attempts,
because he was afterward executed. If
this goose lad been able to lay real
| golden eggs it is to be presumed that he
would not have met with so melancholy
| a fate.
The business of manufacturing gold
i'll 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 hundredweight Of
iron into gold for the prince of Wurtem-
berg. The prince detected a 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 1897. Two other
| ~goldmakers We're likewise hanged from
this same gallOws at Stuttgart in 1906
and 1873 respectively.
In 1917 a man named krOhnemann en-
tered the service of the marquis of
Brandenburg with the rank Of colonel.
| He soon won reputation as a 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 a mystery known only to himself,
he directed his patients not to permit
| the apOthecaries to mix the ingredients
| of his prescriptions, but to buy them,
including the usufur. and bring them to
him for putting together. He mixed the
| drugs, emitting the u~sufur, in which
manner he succeeded in having restored
to him the gold powder, previously sold
by him at a high price to the apothe-
| carries. The powder soon became ia
nous, and the quack finally offered 10
| teach Duke Cosmos III of Florence the
art of making gold. The duke paid
Daniel q 1900 ducats for the secret, and
the swindler fed TO France with the
money.
Count Cajetan i'll 1905, in the presence
| of Frederick l of Prussia, changed one
pound of mercury into gold by means of
a red tincture. subsequently he prom
| ised to make Sc, OOO, 900 worth of gold III
| six weeks, but, failing to keep his word,
he was hanged, draped in gold leaf,
which became the customary method Of
| dealing with alchemists. The tribe Of
| alchemists is not yet entirely extinct.
In 1880 an American named Wise duped
a member of the Rohan family and a
collateral descendant Of the necklace
cardinal" whom C~agliostro deceived by
pretending to make gold. Wise got a
considerable sum of money from Rohan
and decamped. Only a few days ago
the writer picked up a little pamphlet
on a bookstall in New York which con-
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