Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-05-26
Iao1x To MAKE GOLD.

that for some three weeks certain
learned chemists and assayers, including
| Mint-Director Preston and his staii'
were engaged in a series OF secret eS-
perlments and Investigations, connection
with which a few centuries ago hlsh'
have rendered a man lab to be n'eu-
bon-nred. In short. these worthies nave
been coquetting with the black art OF
alchemy, In an endeavor TO pioVe
whether the baser metals could or cou''
not be transmitted into gold and siivsr'
+ As the story goes-and 1t Is not Simply
an evolution Of the lively imagination OF
n correspondent, but is founded on coiu
facts-cortain capitalists OF the WINDY
CITY. the home Of Mr.. Gage, Secretary
of the Treasury. claimed that they
owned a formula b. which sold ana
silver IN enormous Quantities could be
obtained from the baser metals, ana
that i'm lead and iron alone there Is
enough gold TO make the metal almost
as cheap and common as silver. 1heSe
capitalists, headed by one BFlce' WIN
seems 10 have been the Tycho b'""''
Schroeder, OF Guyton de MorVeau OF '"e
syndicate. further claimed that they h"u
already I'm Chicago factory that turner
out $3.50 "a day in gold ana siiver' eN-
tractel from the baser metals.
Mr.. Gage, we are told, was sceptieai-
as behooyes a man who knows Chic"s'
bat after giving hearings TO severdl
members of the syndicate, he called INTO
conference the mint officials and drec'e"
them 10 make. in the interest Of the
government, an exhaustive and thorous"
investigation" These officials were
bound over to secrecy, let into the niSS-
teries Of the formula, supplied WIN
stock of lead. anthony, sheet-ron, pun
yer.zed charcoal, and rolled sulphur
and forthwith commenced their incah'a-
ton act. Now. their report Is naue
public. and gravely concludes as loi-
lows:
During these experiments. which nave
extended over three weeks ana nave III
VOWED an amount of labor wh'ch We
hone has not been entirely wasted We
have seen not the slightest eNluehSe -
auy.creatiOn OF REORGANIZATION vi tn'
Contrary the claimant failed in every III
STANCE TO recover the entire amount ol
siNer and gold known to be present III
the materials The claimant seems -
have devised "A variety OF irra'loi'al az
wasteful methods for recovering PV'
ton Of the silver ana gold Know -
mctallurglsts as being present III many
commercial metals"
The reference to silver and goid "ho" II
10 be present in the materials Is MERCY
an admission of the fact familiar 10 All
chemists that gold and silver are con-
,o,red in small quantities in iron, leao'
ord antimony; but no one would attempt
IN secure these metals, because 'he "a
nense Of extracting would be greater
than the value of what could be reai'~e"
The mint experiments, we are iniorme"'
were made primarily to determine Whsthe'
pr,ce and his associates were entitled 10
. patent. but it appears that the as
covercr of the formula had strong hopes
Of selling: IT TO the government II u
stated that he will appeal his case, ana
that whether the government makes
deal with him or nos he will continue 10
run his mill in Chicago on full time
We think the administration made
great mistake in not purchasing the
formula out Of hand and using the fact
that it had been purchased as evidence
that the Republican party intended TO
do something with the currency ques-
ton" Such a policy would have involved
hardly less assumption Of simple-minded-
ness on the part of the masses touching
the purposes of the administration re-
earding currency reform than did the
sending of Wolcott to Europe and the
anpointment Of international monetary
commissioners. Again, the admlnistra-
ton having gotten its grip on Brice, who
knows that history would not have re-
heated itself i'm the matter of his proving
q second Bottger, and materially aiding
certain china interests in Ohio? The
Elector of Saxony. who got grip on
Bottger. could not, it will be remembered,
make him manufacture gold, but while
the alchemist was under the grip in
Dresden he invented Saxon porcelain,
which was a veritable philosophers
stone-such a philosophers stone, in fact,
rs the Senate tarin-bin china schedule
is intended to be TO the East Liverpool
(O) china manufacturers.