The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1897-10-14
When is Gold Not Gold!

] NIA NbSs - r'ib hoN khips
The director Of the mint, Mr.. Preston,
is struggling with il, and he can 20 more
escape from it than the wedding guest
could make the old salt break away who
persisted 10 spinning his South sea yarn.
The mint has actually bought aud stacked
away with the rest of its bullion some
iugots that were bought as gold, but
which are really, so says the seller, moths
ing but beaten silver. The seller was
DIR. Emmens, ga scientific gent" as Mr..
Bret llarle would express it. The first
account Of the matter was published a
few days ago, and a second iustallmeut
Of the story came yesterday.
la the first part of his disclosure the
doctor simply announced that he could
make gold out of silver, and had done i;
he could so treat silver that 60 per cent
of it would not only look like gold, but
stand all the tests applied to determine
the commences of what seemed to be
gold. lie said he had sold $4,000 worth
of this stuff to the United States through
the assay Office at New York. 1t seems
from the account yesterday that the d.
rector of the mint is still puzzling over
the matter. The general reputation of
DR.. Emmens is such that it is hard, if
not impossible, to believe that he is ly>
ing, yet can such a thing be possible?
Must the world of coinage accept as a
fact the proposition hat silver can be
subjected TO a process which converts
90 per cent of it into something indis-
tinguishab!e from gold and hat without
much expense? If that can be SO, then a
readjustmeut of the ratio between the
two metals is only a question of time,
and not a very long time, either.
The Emmeps process is a secret, and
one which is not for sale. Still! he
vouchsafes some explanation of it. it is
as follows:
"He says his secret is that of subject =
ing silver to this heavy, rapid and con-
tinuous beating without increasing the
temperature to expand the metal. 1t is
as cold, or even colder, Immediately after
the beating as before, and he claims TO
have a force engine capable of producing
pressures exceeding 500 tons per square
inch, and that he can put this enormous
pressure upon the metal without ~increas>
ing the temperature"
1t will be observed that no foreign in
gredient is introduced. Perhaps the
product is veritable gold. Possibly the
difference between gold and silver, as
prepared in the laboratory of nature, is
simply one of beating, or whipping, as
the culinary phrase is. Kepler ex-
claimed, II think thy thoughts after
thee, o God" and who shall say that an
American scientist has not accomplished
ia mineralogy something the same feat
that a German e~cientist did 10 astronu-
my? If this is really true, then a new
era in the money metals is about to dawn.
The discoverer proposes to establish q
company to operate on this plan. There
is no law against beating silver 10 any
way conceivable, and even if the 60 per
cent of the product which comes out vel.
low be sold under a new name Of its own
as being "a new sort of silver product,
nothing can hinder its being nodded into
the usual bullion form and sold to the
minis and the goIdsmiths of the world,
1t will be remembered that in tradi
ton, if not 10 history, Columbus puzzled
the monks with an egg. How could it be
made to stand on end? After a long and
agonizing struggle they gave it up, and
he himself did it by simply breaking the
end. 1t was as easy when once seen as
rolling of a peeled slippery elm log. Ia
this case the process claimed is suggest
i've of egg beating, only with the results
t%ranSposed, 1t would seem that, like an
egg, what seems to be plain silver is COM
posed of two separate parts, one white,
the other yellow. The Emmens process
is as if the two parts of the egg were in>
distingulshably mixed in the original
state, and the whipping of the kitchen
separated them. Who shall say that
originally there was not one mineral,
out of which, by a process of evolution
through trituration, were made two pros
ducts, silver aud gold2
Puzzliug as it all is, the strong prob
ability is that DIR. Emmens will prove a
much closer resemblance TO Columbus
having fun with a lot of monks than
Columbus before Ferdinand and Isab Ella.
Inter Ocean.
Buck kilgore Laughed Last.