The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-07-05
TO THE EDITOR.
liking OF GOLD AND THE
fhs.ry VINO TRY TO MAKE IT.

-
.,.,,rOr Process, the Brice Process ana
~ rroce-.es-Tho Kitchener Process EH-
-I-Tho Man WI Csmped Mt vcsuviua,a
-. IN Get n SECRET from tho Earth.
~ur EDITOR OF THE SUN-Sir: A short
~. spo / read In your newspaper q worry in
Nn. .,aS article on q process for making gold,
alleged secret Of which was In possession
AN named Brice. Since the year one up
!. n, present date there have been men who
-, 10 possess this secret, and that those
~ lived in past ages, whom sciences were still
49, in gloom, should have found disciples
. NJ Az all strange, but how fakirs Of our pres
S,,Vhtened ago can find men Of apparent
~, and position who will not only liston
-, ,rvest money In their crazy schemes In
..hine beyond understanding.
Z. Anil. 1880, I was invited by some leading
in,.s mon to call at their office In the Boreel
na,,vo which l did. After many and serious
's~oniions about my keeping silence, they
Ss.rcd their great secret, namely, hat o
N 1ichenor, in Washington city had made q
~ y, discovery, being nothing less than a proc
- make gold. They said the magnitude of
n. .ohcme was 50 stupendous that the mind
IA not grasp 1t, that IL tho secret leaked out
w. y. ,,lue Of gold would depreoiato throughout
~ =. -orld and all other values would also DO
$500. and u whole lot Of other stun. Then
a. Kindly offered to let mo In as one Of ten to
-, A great fortune. 1 was to proceed to
T..A,nston at once and thoroughly investigate
a. ,roccss and report tho result to them.
", thirty years experience in practical mining
a al that that implies convinced me hat they
-. hang swindled. and that to serve their
..,r,sts best it was wiser to acauiesce in their
srDodtion. Therefore. I took their letter Of in
,%rsuction to Tichcnor and went to Washing
.o I found him in q w~ell-appointed labora-
- He was q well.appearing man of but few
@G,iis He had associated with him two con-
sSSmtes. one who assisted him in his expert
Ssnts %jusglins would t6Se q better rr nnmemanq
IA evidently been tipped of" to the fellow,
x ma worked over me with a zeal and skill
St would get the the f MONEY! me- IRON tno G SRS \ p Say b cne
srtain that the whole business was q gold brick;
Sme OF his flights Of fancy were quite good, and
Tuote from them nearly verbatim.
Xvtsr charactcrizing Tichenor's process as
, ~ he said: with il they would mine moro
In IN the whole world since history began: that
X using chloride OF gold as a re-agent, he could
nsko out Of any gold s%ulphuret ore that would
E " $500 or 5000 per ton; that the chloride OF
IA having an affinity for it's own, brought out
b solvent gold hat the fire assay would not
md COulQ nOI- Nhol Noo "a
Stm was to get o patent whereby, he could pro-
~ the process. They had made application
tr one, but the United. States Government had
sGuested time to investigate, and to that end
Ia sought John sherman, then Secretary OF the
treasury. to have Clarence King. United States
Geologist, make the examination: This she1
nan had refused to do, saying King was en-
Ioyed by the Government in another depart
bent, and he could not take him out OF 1t to put
LIN elsewhere. He went on to say that they in
faded Incorporating a parent company with
O0OOO,O 900 capital as soon as the. patent was
rnnted, and that he had some leading mining
nan and two Congressmen who hsa already pu.
more later. However, they still needed a large
mount for numerous sub.comPanies, &c After
h&sDins to al Abi this l asked aSid him m,s ~h a6d ms m f1F.
CANNES OF chloride of gold to one pound of
&C. Tichenor wanted TO make an experiment
s.l ~ ali He | want ed. T herr np@ / war wrote se1 to he
New York men, telling them that If my previ-
.us opinion needed any veriacation, 1t had been
nindle and Tichenor and his. confederates
Sght to be in Jail; that 1t was impossible for
nything to be in a piece ofore that a chsmica
tt so much gold, dampness, silica, sulphur.
hM, silver, and other specific substances sutti-
dsnt to make up the total weight, and that the
rople was to juggle with the chloride OF gold
nd put into the assay probably ten times as
nzeh as their formula called for,
From Washington l went to California, think
hg had heard the last about this process, but
kae long ! got a letter from the New York
ssn swing i had MADE Tn thfs mistake I maSs OF No my Iyep pie
IRE months later, on my return to New York.
De same men called on me for the purpose OF
nnng me one more chance to rectity my mis-
IKE. They said they had tested the process on
ID hrge scale, and all that Tichenor had claimed
tstwas true; also that they wanted me TO meet
ntsfy myself. This l agreed to do, feeling sure
could expose the swindle. Therefore, l went
tCEn TO Nassau street, and found them al IN
hange, stretched at full length, was tho pro-
no.er l met in Washington.
Il The great modern alChemist, Tichenor. was
b the laboratory preparing to test a ton OF ore
which he had in an iron vat; in the centre or the
nom on a table We're a number OF glass jars
tlea with chloride Of ESis s which i6is he @o wa do aso he
mixed the chloride of gold win the ore in the
vat according to his formula" and the whole
mas was then sent to Ballbachrs rennery. Inc
whole process was so susceptible OF trickery
nd fraud that ! became disguised, and calling
hem together said l wanted them to meet me
u Reotis assay office the next day, and II they
hled 10 convince me and some others that
would also be there that their process was
uhat they claimed, l would expose them as a
pick Of swindlers. As neither of the two men
tpt the appointment, | later went to their lab,
gatory and found 1t locked. Tichenor and
ls gang had disappeared, and the Respectable
~1entleInen OF standing and responsibility who
lad been selected To give. tone 10 the swindle
nOurned the loss of $4,000, the larger part
q which was in the pockets OF Tichenor, q GO.
II " DTiCt Giilu HIS pIOIlultlo u aHHS hHh
te Government should awe the advantages
z the process by paying them a few millions in
bonds which they kindly agreed 10 hold. with
cut interest for two years, until the Govern
eent shall have had time to Manufacturing a
lahdred millions or 80 by the same Inc
lntlemen who form the outside ring in this
tomblnation are known TO secretary Gage as
llnnorabie men. No doubt they are; however,
ae most Charitable thing that can be said for
9em Is that they are the dupes OF the inside
ing. Granville, Bricc's principal promoter
hAkes an astounding statement by telling US
ma. Brice camped at Vcsuvius's crater for nine
Lonths and that he there conceived the idea
nat our furnaces should he constructed with a
Eght and LEFT lung. The inference then Is that
'%esgvius has two lungs. Well. maybe so:
hat he really camped there for was no doubt
y steal natures secret for making gold, but he
s.fHnped in q bad spot fer that purpose, as ! VIII
nov. He might as well camp in a potato
sateh to learn bow to make potatoes. Brice
makes a great mistake in surprising gold Is
aace by great heat and pressure in the bowels
q the earth. Nothing that has ever been
secied from the crater of Il volcano contained u
PaIucle Of gold, and that being the Gaze. II Is
Al 10 assume that volcanic action has nothing
" 90 with tho making OF 1t. j. NJ. T.
oEW YORK, June 80.