The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-12-03
Will Try to Make Gold
From BaSer Metals.
"Chevalier" Paraf's Expert
ment Landed Him in Jail.
What Bach Persons Share of the
Earlh's Surface Would Be.

The transmu.ttion Of bassr m etals in
10 gold wos the dream Of the ancient
sIchemists and the goal toward which
their lfe-labors were directed. Thons-
ands and thousands OF tuem scar, ID for
tao philosophers stone which tney G.
iisved II fCund would eLatie tSem TO
: angs iron. copper or silver into the
precious yellow metal. No, one o, them
ever succs eded in tis quest. and vet, de-
spite this long s,ries OF failurcr, extend
ing over many centuries, tho noIion that
such tranrmu,ation Is possible 10 still
held by eme people I the present day.
This Is shown by the fact that pract cal
stems tre o nc taken IN order to di'covss
definitely whether tho philosophers
stone ~ altogether myth or merely
hidden swn. in sfms oiscsre c:anny.
In other ro'ds, faw modern rclsntits
talked by cp.i.nis - csi aiisis, kayc
determined tn Ind oct whe. hsr there is
any truth la ths ola world b. lief thet
iron, silver and other bi.er metals can,
uEcos pop train n. bo trtn5muted
into real gcli. these entefprising gentle
men. am ng whom ere come Americans,
have fcImec 'The Arg nt4rrum synci-
rate" and the 'irerlar issued by them
o ,nouucss ltst they intend TO construct
go table farascos and other works for
,afrying on the process OF transm utatioa.
rone ssrs ngo the late Oh llisr Al
fred is.ai, who ,ut such prominent
ngurs in tnis town for abou. six months
whie he was making what they called
"ex,iact OF msddsr" fJr tho Stragues
al t.aie biz prirt works in CrinstoD pre-
tendcd that ne hld discoverej prCcis
by winch no COT Ia extract gold from the
h.il. This WAS after PLr.f- fiasco nj
New York ss tho originator Of tho pre-
eess OF manufacturing olscmsrgar!ne and
after he had skipped when called to ac-
conEf for selling the right 10 use certain
soaline dyes 10 manufacturers, when the
process had been invente by another.
Paraf turned up in Chili wit, plausible
plan for extracting gold from the toll.
He was . eli0-tongued and briiiia ftl-
low and succeeded In in eies ing capital
ists in bis scheme. A large amount OF
money was srbscri bed, AN xtensive plant
Luils and the nufac,ure of gold from
the soil began.
Paraf turned out gold fro, his cruci-
llei; there was nc doubt Of that, hut at q.
few months the stock old,rs became
rome hat uneasy , cause the amount OF
the precious metal produced wa far below
the ssm expended in the process. A
secret investigation wss ce,ided upon
which resulted In tie cic.very that
sucL golf es was turned out was placed
there ny Parsf's servant, Francois. Thon
tts N,hevslisr" wss prosecuted for
twlpGiipg and on conviction was SEN
ieaced TO ten years Imprisonment. lie
subsequently iuraci up st Lima, Peru.
whers he obtained situstion In the |
mint wtch be held until lis death atout |
II years ago.
II 1t should ever happen that tho |
lsncod sufascs of the globe Is divided |
up sno sliotted In qGsI shares / each OF |
its Inhabitants IL will ne fulnd tina. each
viii Let little truck farm cf 20 aid one.
bsif tcres. TIE land d surfa q OF IN,
globe tcntains, as nelr as 1t i, possitlo
for the ae5grsphers TO ascertain, 3j,6)o,
U0O.0 % scie., which. divid- "a among tho
1. 0o,00i,0Jo Inhabitants which the
wcrI. ,ontsins, &C ,ording to the latest
Official estimates. would eiee zach OF
them trsct OF land ~ the area rtn-
tionei GboysA- -IAkin2 Iha-nal ali+s , f.
ltcn cf tie wcr.i into contiIeiotion
there are rlmost exactly 2s inht b:tanis TO
eAt h 90 ae niie. The fell l5wing figures
showin, The number Of persons (omitt-
lag fra't.onr) TO fquarc riie In the
'estrai divisions OF the globe are from
the hest suthori.i,s on human family
s'stistic1: Euror-. IS; Asir, a6; Africa,
IS; North Amsrica, 81; South America, 4;
Ucsaniea and tho Polsr regious, z.