Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-02-15
MAKING GOLD BY ARruFlcE.
How the Alchemists Used to Do 1t and tn
Fate 1t Brought Them To.

MAKING GOLD BY ARTIFICE.
How the Alchemists Used to Do 1t and the
Fate 1t Brought Them To.
1t has often been stated, and with
truth, that modern chemistry is in
debted for much of its knowledge to
the alchemists of old, whose expert
ments for the purpose of making gold
by artifice were certainly extraordinary
to the utmost point of absurdity. Some
of them actually attempted to imprison
the suns rays, which they tried to cal
cine and powder, the rays being sup
posed to consist of pure golden sparks.
Others sought to obtain the philoso-
piers stone, which was to trans
mute all other metals into gold.
from honey, sugar. wine, blood,
and even rain water. Dead
bodies were dug up from their graves
and saltpeter was extracted from them
to serve as an ingredient Still others
believed that gold grew from seed,
other metals merely furnishing fruit
full soil in which the yellow germs de-
veloped 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 fifty thousand
pounds of mercury into gold for the
English King Edward Ill. and that
from this supply of the yellow metal
the first rose mobiles were coined The
creditability of the story is somewhat
diminished, however, by the circum-
stance that the same monarch 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 Fred
eric III, on January Is, 1918, al
Prague, changed three pounds of mer-
curry 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 inscrip.
ton referring to its artificial origin.
This medal was long preserved in the
Vienna treasury.
In 1705 Saxon lieutenant named Pay.
kull was taken prisoner by Charles
death. He promised to make a million
dollars worth of gold each year if his
life were spared. In the presence of
witnesses Payl1ull changed six ounces
of lead into gold by means of a tincture
which contained anthony, 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 it to a
violent death. George Honauer prom
ised to transform three thousand
six hundred weight of iron into gold
for the prince of Wurtemberg. 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 impru.
other goldmakers were likewise hanged
from this same gallows at Stuttgart in
1906 and 1873 respectively.
In 1917 a man named Krohnemanr
entered the service of the marquis OF
Brandenburg with the rank of colonel
He soon won reputation as goldmakel
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
the deception. He was condemned t.
be hanged.
A quack named Daniel supplied Ital
ian apothecaries with a wonderful golC
powder called 'usufur," which wa.
supposed tc have astonishing medic
inal value. Pretending that the ar
of compromising this usufur, with other
drugs was a mystery known only
to himself, he directed his pa
tients not to permit tn,
apothecaries to mix the ingre
dents Of his prescriptions, but to buy
them, including the usufnr, and bring
them to him for putting together. II,
mixed the drugs, emitting the usufur
in which manner he succeeded in hav
ing restored to him the gold powder
previously sold by him at high price
to the apothecaries. The powder soor
became famous, and the quack finally
offered to teach Duke Cosmos II. o.
Florence the art of making gold. The
duke paid Daniel twenty Thousand
ducats for the secret and the swindlel
fled to France with the money.
Count Cajetan in 1705, in the presence
of Frederick l. of Prussia, changed one
pound Of mercury into gold by means
of red tincture. Subsequently he
promised to make six million
dollars worth Of gold in six
weeks, but, failing to keef
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 Rohar
family and a collateral descendant Of
the "Nscklace Cardinal" whom Gag
liostro deceived by pretending to make
gold. Wise got considerable sum OF
money from Rohan and decamped
Only few days ago the writer picked
up little pamphlet on bookstall in
New York which contained several
pages of advertisements of subs tame,
for TRANSMITTING other metals into gold
the price being only ave dollars:z