The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-05-25
STRANGE STORY OF
THE BLACK ART
Expert ASSayerS Test
the Claims of Edward
G. Brice.
They Report Adversely to the
Theory That Gold Can Be
Manufactured.
But the Enterprising Chicago Man
Says He Is Making the Precious
Metal.

WASHINGTON, D. c., May PA
strange story, in which the black art of
medievalism applied by modern methods
and the threatened upsetting of the
present financial conditions are leading
features. came out to-day through the
submission of an official report to the
Secretary of the Treasury by Preston, Di-
rector of the Mint.
The report tells OF the investigation by
three Government officials into the pro-
cess for producing or creating silver and
gold from base metals, the secret that al
chemists have been trying to solve for
centuries. The investigation has created
excitement among men OF high financial
standing, mystified scientific men and
caused uneasiness and amazement in the
Treasury Department.
The man who secured the investigation
is Edward c. Brice of Chicago. The rec
ords in the Patent Office show that on
May Z, 1885, he filed an applicatio for
patent for creating gold and silver, claim
ing he could produce these from base
metals such as lead, tin and anthony.
The patent was twice refused on the
ground that no practical application of
continued to press the claim, and the
Patent Office officials promised to give
him chance TO show what could be done
by his method.
Last month the Secretary of the Inte-
rior asked Secretary Gage for permission
TO make experiments in the laboratory of
the Mint Bureau. Director Preston on
May appointed a commission Of three of
the best sssayers in the Government SER
vice TO carry out Cages instructions.
They are Andrew Mason, Superintendent
of the Assay Office at New York, D. K
futile, melter and refner of the PhiIadeI-
phia Mint, and Cabell Whitehead, as
saver OF the Mint Bureau in Washington.
The commission met at the Mint Bureau
May 5, and after making many expert
Ments of their own devising, at Brice's
suggestion submitted 10 Director Preston
last Saturday report, which was handed
10 Secretary Gage to-day. The supplies
purchased for the experiment were abeled
''che mically pure Brics had requested
that only chemically pure materials be
used. The commission made q test by
Brice's formula and found small but
VEGETABLE quantities OF gold and silver in
the so.cailed chemically pure antimony."
Other samples were produced from differ
ent sources with like result and things
looked bright for Brice.
while seeking for pure antimony,"
says the commission in its report, 1--WE
accepted the offer of Brice that he should
supervise and direct the trial of the pro-
cess upon anthony known to contain
small amounts of silver and gold and
that he should conduct the assay of The
same anthony for com parison of the re-
suits from his own assay methods with
those from his creative process. His as
say in which he scorified one-haIf an
assay ton of anthony Zone assay ton
equals %, 166 grains) with one-half an
assay ton of lead showed the anthony 10
contain .066 ounces of gold and .3l7 ounces
silver per ton.
"Brice now subjected five ounces of this
antimonv to his creative process. His
yield after treatment showed gold 1854
ounces per ton of antimony, and $40
ounces of silver per ton OF anthony used.
Your committee followed up the work by
making an assay of the same metal,
following well known and approved A..
methods of assaying, with the following
results: Gold, 100 ounces per ton, and
silver 100 ounces per ton of antimony. A
comparison of this result will show that
Brice found by his assay Sc per cent of
gold and 26.40 per cent of silver actually
present in the materials used. By his
creative process he recovered 81 per cent
OF gold and SIS. 81 per cent of silver origi-
nalIy present in the materials
1t was judged by the comm ission that
they were not likely to obtain decisive re-
suits as long as they worked on materials
containing appreciate quantities of silver
and gold. They found all the available
samples of metallic antimony to contain
minute but appreciate quantities of gold
and silver. They undertook the task OF
preparing anthony upon which assay
should not show even a trace of either of
these metals. The report gives in detail
all the experiments conducted and sums
up as follows:
During these experiments, which have
now extended over some three weeks and
have involved an amount of painstakine
labor which we hope has not been entirely
wasted, We have not seen the slightest
evidence of any creation or transmuta-
ton. On the contrary the claimant failed
in every instance TO recover the entire
amount of silver and gold known to be
present IN the materials.
THE claim ant seems to have devised
variety of irrational and wasteful methods
for recovering portion of silver and gold
known to metallurgists as being present
in many commercial metals. such as anti
meny and lead"
Brce IS not satisfied with the result OF
the commissions work. He claims as the
supplies for conducting the experiments
we're purchased from the best dealers IN
tEe country and regarded as chemically
pure, the goid obtained WAS created by his
process. Brice also claims he is produc-
ing gold and silver on numerical scale
at his works in Chicago and making 1t
pay. He saws he has produced thousands
OF dollars and has invested $25, 900.
I'M THE SUPREME COURT.