The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-15


deal OF surprise that l one day receiver
his announcement that ne had discov
cred the greatest gold mine in the work
"a mine so vast he declared, apIar
entity piqued at my lack OF excitement
that were ftS existence TO become
known the price of gold would fall 81
enormously it would cease 10 be USED
as money metal"
Indeed, it was apparently this Iattel
fact that exercised my host far more
than ways and means to work his mine
Finally with the idea that I was Ito at
tempt to secure 9lle capital required
in the enterprise, was let into the
great secret.
His gold mine was the sea,
Starting on the idea, Which was then
a pure assumption, that gold actually
existed in the sea water, the professor
as l found my friend was known. had
! devised a, very simple and very ingen-
ious apparatus for the electrical depos:-
ton of the gold upon chemically pre-
pared metal plates. His idea was to
arrange these plates in large sheets and
subject them to an eDHctric current OF
! low voltage, the plates meanwhile being
trailed from the rear of vessel slowly
! traVersing the ocean. When they were
sufficiently coated with i5he deposit of
! gold, they were to be hauled out and
| scraped, and then thrust back, the
scrapings meanwhile being melted up
! into lngCts.
Besides the professors estimate of the
probable yield of his mine Colonel
Sellers millions were mild. He foresaw
such a flood of yellow metal as would
| make it . puzzle how to get the gold
into property before its value would
fall TO nothing He had considered
matured his plans.
You see, he explained to me- cit
would never do to patent this device,
Tor that would Immediately disclose the
secret and there would be no way in
the world of preventing thousands of
others to equip ships with similar ap-
paratus and go mining in the sea, nor
would there be any possible way of col
Letting royalties In fact, you see. the
royalties wouldn't be worth much of
anything any way, because when the
secret got out gold would simply be
demonetiZed and its value fab to little
or nothing
The professor therefore had evolved
plan TO equip a large vessel, go of
into unknown waters and never touch
land again until he had corraled enough
gold from the sea to make everybody
interested in the venture rich as hun
dred CroeSuSes. Then having got this
safely converted into property, the pro-
lessor figured TO himself to make a long
reach for undying reglown by announc-
inc his marvellous process
remember at the time I suggested
to the professor that the the sight Of
such ungodly stores of gold even the
most Christian crew might rise up and
butcher the proprietors, and then di-
vide the spoil. But the professor
was ready for me here, as everywhere
else. "Oh dear mel he exclaimed, Il
thought of that long ago. But the crew
-A1r11 -.
at all. l would represent that iodine
or bromide or some other valuable
chemical compound to be found in the
sea, for the extraction of which | had
found a new process
To my further objection Chat it
might not be possible to secure the de-
position of all the gold in the sea water
electrically the professor replied that
he didn't care about that, that he would
be quite content with a tenth or even
a hundredth of a grain per toni ANY
way l was minded to put it. there
were millions in it,
| am not going to disclose here the
precise degree of credulity which I al
lowed myself in the professors colos-
sal scheme, or what I ever did in the
matter afterwards 1t is enough to saw
that some years have elapsed and so !
far as l know the gold in the sea water
still remains and the professor. if he /
be alive, is still, I doubt not, engaged /
in the arduOus work of prospecting /
through the months of summer and in /
swinging baton through the winter
TO accumulate grub sake" fc,. ,t1.a |
opening of spring. For the rest. I had /
thought no more of the matter until /
he other day. when I came upon Pro- /
lessor LlVersldge'S experiments. Re- I
port or the latter | carried uD to Pro- I
lessor Croker Of Columbia. one of the (
foremost electricians of this country.
With the intent to ask if in view of the
fact that the quantity of gold in the /
sea water had now been definitely as
there appeared any practical
means for its profitable extraction.
And this is where the peculiar part
II this story comes in. Professor
Croker suggests the possibility of sue
;ess with precisely the same process
hat my old friend in the Cascades had
worked out. Just what Croker said
vas this:
PROFESSOR CROCKER'S VIEW.
IF there is sufficient gold in the sea
water, current of low voltage passed
trough the water will cause a deposit
ion Of the gold. This is equally true
S regards silver. The current will at
ack gold and silver before any other
INSTANCES. 1t is simply a process of
elective electrolysiS. 1t remains to be
etermined whether so small a quantity
s grain or a half a grain could be
recipitated.
But it does not seem to me that it
-ould be necessary to go to the ex-
ense of equipping ship, or to drag
our plates through the water. 1t
GEMS to me that it would be quite suf-
Gent to hang them underneath any
ocks that extend saito t1,- t. 81
nd are not around the mouths of
vers where the water will be full Of
lime. The action of the tides would
resent an ever fresh quantity of water
the plates, and as fast as they were
0vered they could be scraped and the
old separated out of the scrapings.
1 this way your process would be
luch cheaper, and as 1 take it the :
mole matter is question of expense ;
nd result, this would be an item !
Il am very far from saving that tho /
ling is possible, but at the same time .
lere are no fiat impossibles on the
ice of the matter. What I mean is.
list as l said at the first, that if there
suf1lcient quantity of gold in solu- .
on, II can be precipitated electrically. .
no the only further matter to be de- /.
'rmined is whether this can be done /
q sufficiently low cost to make IL :
rohtable. A grain of gold is worth !
bout a nickel. half a grain. Oh :
'nts. A ton of sea water is roughly -.
bout cubic meter-a little more than .
cubic yard. Reduced to its simplest q
rms the problem is: How much of II
us gold can you get, and what win Il
cost you to get it? These are nuretv
alters for experiment and / do NOT
'ubt that someone will make the a