Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1897-10-14
KL0NDIKE METAL
MAY NOT Be GOLD.
Dr.. E1nmens' Statement That lie Is
Transforming Silver causes Di.
rector Of the Mint Preston
to Theorize.

Washington, d. c.. Oct. 6. Special
Telegran,-T director OF the mint
has not yet recovered from the shock
he received last week from the visit oil
Dir, Emmens of New York and the
statement the doctor made that he
was transforming silver into gold anG
selling the product to assay offices in
| New York.
Mr.. Preston is not a gullible man
when it comes to such things, and last
spring he had no hesitancy about TAX
ing up Professor Bryces proposition
TO appoint board of experts to test
his process of making gold from base
metal. But be is very glad thai be is
not called upon to demonstrate that
Dr. Emmens is q crank. or that he
does not know what he is talking
about.
Mr.. Preston finds no satisfaction in
ridiculing the claim of DR.. Emmens
that he has discovered process by
which he can transform silver into
gold, for the fact remains that the
doctor has sold the mint through the
best assayer in the government en-
ploy more than 50, 600 worth of metal
which was accepted as gold because it
bore all the tests of gold. There is
also the doctors promise to furnish
the government with $4,000 worth of
this metal in the next two months and
10000 ounces a month next year.
1t is not a joke with Director Pres
ton; either he is buying gold from DR..
Emmens Or he is not, and if not he has
no one to blame except the assayer and
the tests adopted for determining what
is gold There is in this proposition
of Dr., Emmens the bare possibility
that new and better methods of assay
ing gold shall have to be adopted.
The doctor has the best end of the
problem SO far. He represents his
metal as the product from Mexican
silver dollars, and leaves it to the gov
ernment to determine its value, aud he
is willing to furnish the government
unlimited quantities of this metal,
claiming that he can do it at a profit
SO long as the government pays him in
gold pieces for it. He does not want
to sell his secret, in fact, says be viii
not part with it, and the government
cannot compel him to do so. He has
his company organized. and each
stockholder IS pledged not to sell his
stock.
Mr.. Preston thinks ii looks like
clear business proposition, and either
the government is being swindled
through its own faulty assay Of the
metal or DR.. Emmens is producing gold
from some other metal. The director
of the mint acknowledges that he is
puzzled. He also admits that he can
see of no way of showing that this
metal is not gold without at the same
time showing that much OF the gold
from the mines deposited in the mints
is also baser metal, for the same test is
applied to ALL
DR.. Emmens' metal is about the same
color as the kIondike gold which Mr.
Preston has received, considerably
lighter in color than the California
gold, and the Doctors metal ASSAYS
about the same, or only a little lower
than the Klondike gold. The doctors
metal is valued at from Sl3 to Sl4 an
ounce, the Klondike gold at from Sf4
to SIS an ounce. Both carry consider.
able silver, and that explains why tney
are of lighter color and of about the
same value.
The similarity OF the two products,
that from DR.. Emmens' laboratory or
Staten island and the gold from Alas
ka, suggests to Mr.. Preston that per-
haps they have been produced from
the same causes. DR.. Emmens says:
Take Mexican SILVER dollar and
dispose it in apparatus which win
prevent expansion or flow, then subject
it to heavy, rapid, and continuous
beating under conditions of cold such
as to prevent even temporary
rise of temperature, when the
blows are struck. Test the material
hour by hour, and at length you will
find more than { trace Of gold"
+ He says his secret is that of subject
ing silver to this heavy, rapid, and
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 force engine capable
OF producing pressures exceeding 500
tons per square inch, and that he can
put this enormous pressure upon the
metal without the temperature.
This theory has suggested to the