The record-union., 1897-08-14
MAKING GOLD.
SCIENTISTS SAY 1T CAN BE
MADE FROM BASER METALS.
There Is One Thing Lacking and
They Expect to Overcome
That.

Can gold be made from baser metals?
Professor Gustav Hinrichs, the famous
chemist, believes it can, and does not
hesitate to affirm that the feat wal DE
accomplished within a half century
Professor ]. ]. Thompson also thinks
that if he can dissociate the atoms Of
various substances that is, if he can
split them up, they can be reconstruct
ed again in the form Of gold. He IS
now STRIVING to produce temperature
in excess of 5000 degrees above zero,
for it is the general scientific belief
that With this excessive heat the feat
can be accomplished.
Professor ]. J. Thompson believes
that, under influence Of the cathode ray.
a true dissertation of elementary at
Ons occurs, and Professor George =.
Fitzgerald points out that if this be
really true then We are within meas
urable distance Of the dreams of the
alchemists, and are in the presence Of
method of transmitting one element
into another" For several years OBJ
servations with the spectroscope have
made it probable that the elements
as we know them are some of them
dissociated in the sun and stars; and
now the report comes from London
that the same thing has apparently
been accomplished in mundane lab
oratory.
In view of the tests made by the
experts Of the United States Govern
ment Of a process which was claimed
by its inventors actually to make gold,
Professor Hinrichs' opinion has pecu-
liar timeliness. The Government ex-
perts We're ridiculed in some quarters
for SO much as examining the alleged
invention, but the statement of Pro-
fessor Hinrichs goes a great way To-
ward justifying their action in the mat
ter. 1t appears that the search for
a means Of making gold is by no means
on a plane, as many people have sup
posed, with the fruitless cndeavor to
secure perpetual motion. 1t is held to
be absolutely impossible to make per-
petual motion machine, because sucn
a machine could only operate in vio-
lation Of one of the most fundamental
laws Of physcs-the principle of the
conservation Of energy. But the pro-
ject TO make gold from other metals
does not, it is said on the highest au-
thority, violate any known principle Of
nature. Therefore it is the most en-
fnent chemists who most readily agree
that the feat may some time be ac-
complished.
OF course not all scientists agree
with Professor Hinrichs as TO the prob
ability of this discovery being made in
the near future. People never do agree
about the probability of doing any
thing that has not yet been done. But
the recent strides in chemistry have
been so rapid and so great that th&
better argument seems to lie with those
who expect much of this science in the
near future rather than with those
who expect little. The reason so many
people are skeptical is chiefly that they
are ignorant of what has been done
already The work of the technical
scientist goes ahead so quietly that ii
is little noticed by the outside worll
except in these rare instances in which
it chances TO touch upon matters of
direct economic Importance. When
chemists found that they could build
up organic compounds in the labora-
tory their first results seemed of 10
consequence except in the establish
ment of a principle which unscientifc
persons could hardly understand and
not at all appreciate. Yet see what
has come of this; step by step the
experiments have gone ahead till it
now is possible to manufacture in the
laboratory substitutes for many COM
mercial articles that formerly were Sc
cured with difficulty from nature alone
A striking illustration of this is fur