Evening star., 1897-06-05
THE MAk1|Ne| ] J G OF GOLD
Mr., Brioe Tells Of His Claims and
His Wprks.
" 80 ~ 9-a-4-53
STUDIED oRR& lED VOLCANOES
Says His First Success Was in
This City.
USES LEAD AND ANTIMONY Y

AS"AAe hASlOiy VI UIS WOTh
Il could not accept the theory" says MIR.
Brice, that all substances as we find
them in nature were created in the be-
ginning OF time, and that nature had set
apart certain period in which to create
these substances. 1 believe that the Gre
alton Of stone. metals and all Of the in
organic kingdom has been going on for
ages, and is going on now just 1t did
centuries ago.
Il of course was taught to believe that
even the little grains of sand or pebbles,
as well as the gold found in the mines,
had been created by God and created with
in six days; but my mind refused to ac-
cept this theory. Therefore. at very
early age, began the investigation of
minerals, in crude way, at first. My
hrst efforts were to simply take pebbles,
break them open and examine them with
the naked eye, to see what was in their
Interior, to note their structure, etc. Final
~, 1 passed from this crude process of
time passed on and l began to get little
better educated, / took these substances,
including gold and silver and then ores,
ana made q Quantitative and qualitative
ferent so-called elements. SO that by re-
compromising them I could arrive at the
same result that nature did.
Were Believers.
In searching over the history of al
chemy, found that some of the greatest
minds had not rejected the proposition
that the base could be transmitted into the
nobler metals 1 discovered that Gebir,
who has been called the father of mod
ern chemistry; Roger Bacon, the inventor
OF gunpowder; Basil Valentine, whose re-
searches were partly along the line of anti
monial ores; Dumas, the great French
chemist, and his still more famous coun-
tryman, Lavoiseur; Sir Isaac Newton and
last but not least, Sir Humphrey Davy, to
whom we are indebted for the discovery
OF no less than sixteen of the so-cailed
elements, including sodium, potassium and
calcium, had been firm believers that some
day this great secret of nature which had
defied the researches of the ages, would
be given to mankind. The great German
scientist Brandt, who. in 1854, in Hamburg,
discovered the supposed element phos-
phorus. was also41A firm believer in the
transmutation Of metals and devoted a
large portion of his long and industrious
life to the uEearthingc of this great Sc
cret. The reason, ,ftthowever. that all the
ancient alchemistse failed to effect what
l have accomplished iscthat they did not
have the proper appliances. In the first
place. those appliances not having been
invented during their time; in the second
place. they were totally ignorant of the
agent in nature, although they must have
been aware of itsIi oxidizing and destruc-
tive effects. hi
Il reject most emphatically as utterly
erroneous the theory that either gold or
silver .s an element, and by my process
this fact is established, beyond the shadow
of doubt. The custom Of the alchemists
was to place certain ingredients in their
crEclbles, and when they had carried them
through their different processes they nour-
ished the illusive hope that they would
hnd in those vessels virgin gold. This IS
where they made their mistake, as they
fhG. nty, Il,
step which we find in nature which re-
quireS the production OF an ore from which
gold and silver are extracted. 1t is true
that we sometimes find native gold and
silver-that is, the two metals aim ost
wholly pure; but the majority of the gold
of the world Is extracted from ores through
which 1t is diffused in minute quantities.
quantities so small that they cannot be de-
tected with the naked eye. These are the
ores from which we procure today the great
bulk of gold used in commerce. The al
chemists failed, not because they did not
distinguish between cause and effect but
because the middle step was unknown to
them-that middle step being the creation
Of the ore.
Period of Formation.
I'm the first experiments 1 procured from
nature specimens of. ore, having prior to
these experiments minutely studied their
formation and surroundings. Having found
that gold, while not usually diffused
through large quantities of the veinstones
and gangue, was, however, diffused through
u limited quantity which filled fissures in
the rock, and that those assures could he
traced through different strata, such as
porphyry, compact limestone, granite and
a great number of other formations, it
occurred to me that neither one of the
above mentioned substances was really a
part Of the ore itself.
II discharged from my mind at once all
theories as to gold having one particular
veinstone. and as these fssures penetrated
numerous different strata, came to the
conclusion that these leads or assures were
caused by upheavals due to volcanic ac-
tion and that the volcanic fires far in the
interior of the earth had caused the forma-
tion of the veins by ejecting the matter
that filled these assures.
Further evidence Of this was the fact
that In many veins gold is diffused in min
ute quantities. proving conclusively that it
had not been caused by fnfiltration, but by
being elected from the interior of the earth
in an atomic or molecular condition, and
that 4. must have been formed at a later
period than the rock or other substances
constituting the strata which surrounded
after I had gained limited knowl-
edge of natures work as it was thus pre-
sented to my mind, l began a process of
reasoning which had for its basis the fact
formed at later period than the rocks
surrounding 1t, as above described. There
fore. / argued, that II my assumption was
true. that If gold had been created at a
later period than stone, it was right to as
sumo that 1t could be created at the pres
ent time. ~. Z 81
Properties of Gold.
MY efforts at tiiis time were concen-
tra.ed on a collection Of minerals and I
sought to discover byt quantitative and
qualitative analyses1 their constituent sup
posed elements. This II did, separating
each supposed element carefully, and de-,
termining its suppressed, elementary char
acter. Then followed the process of re-
compounding those,isupposed elements. for |
the purpose Of determining what part they |
played in the formation or creation of gold |
and silver. sf>s IL
I'm the study oft,the ysupposed elenen- |
tary creation Of ores Il was necessarily |
compelled to examine sinto the peculiar |
properties Of gold ffselfs On INVESTIGATING
the character Of this ,precious, metal I |
found that 1t was entirely free from oxidi- |
zation; therefore ttiwas right to assume |
that as gold was lfreeI from oxidixation. |
oxygen played some part in its forn,a.
ton: and, passing att this point into the |
study of oxygen, and the grAat part II 4
filled in the mineral as well as the veg
etable and animal kingdom in the bufldinr i
up as well as the final destination of ali