The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-10-06

4 lCial Sine. II ulILe1s IL us al pCiALeuCE
and qualities from the parent silver and
somewhat resembles gold. 10 this her
maphroditic or amorphous form Of
metal-neither silver nor gold, but par
taking Of the qualities Of each-the
learned doctor has given the name ''ar-
gentaurum'' Esilver-gold). By prolong-
ed molecular vibration DR.. Emmens has
succeeded in transforming thirteen
ounces Of argentaurum into pure gold.
which was accepted without hesitation
by the New York assay Office and paid
for as such" We are not informed
wherein lies the special virtue in the
Mexican dollar which renders it sus-
ceptible to these shocks. and it would
surely be far more creditable and Yalu-
able to the doctor if be could operate
successfully upon the American silver
dollars, which contain the same kind
and proportion Of pure silver and cop
per alloy, the only difference being that
the Mexican dollar weighs few grains
more than the Bland dollar
DR.. Emmens is not the only modern
alchemist who claims to have discover
ed a process Of transmitting various
metals into gold, and one such joker
actually succeeded about April 1asO
in inducing the secretary Of the treasury
to order an official investigation of his
gold creative methods by experts of the
mint. This discoverer proposed to
transmute antimony into gold; and 1t
was soon found by the mint experts
that all native anthony contains a
small quantity of gold. Then curious
deliver into musty old scientific reports
in the library Of the Franklin Institute
unearthed an interesting volume of the
proceedings Of the Philosophical society.
nearly forty years old, which contained
an account Of Investigations Of SINH
Jar character made In the Philadelphia
mint about 1860. An account Of these
Investigations appears in the current
number of the Popular Science Monthly.
The claims of cranks and of charla-
tans to have discovered the secret of
transmutation of metals into gold must
not be confounded with the ideas which
are at present existing in a chaotic state
in the minds Of many scientists regard
ing the possibility Of the dissertation of
the so-called elements" under intense
heat in the electric arc or furnace. The
complicated speetra and innumerable
bright lines which the spectrosoope re-
veals in the inoandescent vapors of
some Of the elements and the close sim
uarity of some of the spectroscopie lines
Of different elements have led TO the
belief that many of the so-called ele-
ments are not in reality simple sub
stances, but compounds; and it is even
maintained by some of the greatest
leaders of scientific thought that all
forms of matter emanate from COM
mon source or atom. The idea is begil-
ming to formulate itself in the minds of
these advanced thinkers that It may be-
come possible to break UP the molecules
of matter-perhaps through the inter-
mediary of the strange force developed
In the Roentgen rays-and thus by q
kind of molecular bombardment break
down the structure Of all metals or
other so-caIled elementary substances.
These absruse scientific ideas are wide
" distinct from tn absurd claims of the
modern alchemists who seem to be tax
ing advantage Of the prevailing gold
fever to attract attention 10 their pranks.