The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-23

sured by the construction and safe ma
| nipulatiOn OF new apparatus, in Wnica
vast energy VIII be employed
| Working upon the necessarily microscO-
| picai scale OF our experimental researches
/ We found that the substance called by rs
| srgentaurum can be aggregated into
| molecules having a density considerably
| superior TO that OF silver molecules, AMI,
| we think. Identical with that OF ordinary
| gold molecules. Whether we are right as
| 10 this or not, the condensed argentau-
1 rum presents the appearance and is en-
| dOwed with the properties OF ordinary
| metallic gold.
For example. It IS green by transmitted
| light, and yellow by reflected light. prop
| critics which, as all chemists know, are
| possessed by gold alone. It's resistance to
| the action Of either nitric or hydrOchlOric
| acid alone. and its solution by a mixture
| Of these acids. are also distinguishing
| properties Of pure gold and Of no other
| yellow metal
! Under the microscope Il IS fndistinguish-
able from ordinary gold. We feel assured,
| therefore, that when produced in bulk il
| will comply with all the tests OF the Unit
! ed States mint. and Will be accepted by
the commercial and financial world as be-
| ing in very fact true gold.
It may be thought that all this work Of
| ours is merely a resuscitation Of ancient
| alchemy, and that We are engaged in hope
| less quest Of the philosophers stone. This
| however, is by no means the case.
The ancient alchemists believed that
some substance might be found by the
| mere touch of which base metals could
| be transmitted into silver and gold. 9th
| ers somewhat less crude in their ideas
! believed that gold and silver were in
/ reality base metals, with the addition Of
/ some Informing spirit" and this spirit
they held could be added if a suitable
| powder Of projection" should be thrown
into the molten iron or lead or other base
| metal employed.
Modern chemistry regards the matter
| from a very different point OF view. 1t be-
| lieves that the ultimate particles consti-
tuting gold, silver, iron, lead, zinc and
all other metals are identical in substance
and that the different properties of the
several metals depend entirely upon the
different ways in which the particles Of
the common substance are arranged.
The periodic law Of the elements is the
formal expression of this doctrine. 1t is
called periodic because chemists have
found that when all the known elements
are arranged in the order of the respec-
tive weights of their molecules each dis
plays a remarkable similarity of proper
ties.
This recurrence Of properties at given
numerical intervals in the table, or this
periodicity, as 1t is termed, goes to show
that mere weight or, rather, density of
aggregation, is the determining cause of
the. properties that distinguish the vari-
! Gus elements. This is no mere theory.
If a new element were to be discovered
tomorrow and any chemist were to be
told its atomic weight, he, by merely no
ticing the position such weight would
cause the element to occupy IN the nu-
merical table have mentioned would be
able to describe with considerable accu-
racy the appearance and practical and
chemical properties of the substance,
without having seen or examined it. Prof.
Mendeljeef, the chief discoverer of the
periodic law, found a certain gap in the
numbers constituting the table.
He thereupon asserted that an element
must exist having such and such prop
critics. Some little time afterward this
very element was discovered and was
found to have the atomic weight and prop
critics which Mendeljeef had predicted.
Similar reasoning may be employed to
demonstrate the existence of our Argen-
taurum. If Mendeljeefs table be exam
ined 1t will be seen that a vacant space
exists In the sub-group of group l, and
that this vacant space stands immedi-
ately between silver and gold.
Our claim, as l have tried to make clear,
is that the hitherto missing element in
question is our Argentaurum, which, in
itself, is, therefore, neither silver nor
gold, but which may by our new physical
methods, be converted into gold.
The question of cost is an important fac
= tor. Artificial diamonds. for instance, have
been made, of a purity and brilliancy
which render them marketable al the high
est prices But the cost of their manufac-
ture has hitherto been in excess Of their
market value.
Thus the discovery has neither enriched
those who made it nor affected the dia-
! mond trade. If in our case the cost of
! converting silver into gold is such as to
more than swallow up the difference be-
! tween the price of the raw material (sil-
~ ,Frr@ ~. So rr.E1
product gold, it is evident that it would
not pay us to send gold into the market.
Our estimates, however, show US that a
better fate is in store, for US. We do not
consume any chemicals and other costly
materials in our process.
. What we use is mainly energy in some
of it's various forms, such as heat, cleo
tricity. magnetism, gravity, cohesion,
chemical affinity, X rays and the like.
Energy is cheaply produced nowadays and
may be had in any desired form by the
; combustion of coal.
When it is a question of applying energy
. to small masses the expense involved is
very slight and as in the case of our work
, we deal with ounces instead of with tons,
I it will be obvious that the consumption of
energy cannot be very large, although in
the course of the process we may have at
times to employ vast forces. Our chief
source of expense is the time required for
; bringing about the desired molecular
changes. But we hope when our working
apparatus shall be constructed on a large
scale to reduce the time factor to mod
crate limits.
No very close estimate of the cost
seems to US at the present time to be
, practicable but we think that it will not
exceed a maximum of $40 per ounce of
silver treated, and we think it may very
probably be reduced to IS per ounce.
We also estimate that the waste of ar
gentaurum Will not exceed the equivalent
of % per cent. of the silver treated. In
other words, we hold that one ounce OF
silver will produce three-quarters of an
ounce of gold.
The present price of silver is about 6s
cents per ounce, and of gold S20.07. But
even if we were to give 81 per ounce for
our silver our total cost of producing
three-quarters of an ounce of gold would
not exceed $12. Thus, as three-quarters
of an ounce of fine gold is worth a little
more than SIS, it seems to US that we can
reckon upon a profit of at least 50 per
ounce upon all the silver we employ.
Stephen H. Emmens.