The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-04-04
THE CRAZE FOR GOLD.
a Maine Company Recovering the
Metal From Sea Water.

The passion for the possession of
sold has reached such an abnormal
stage that even the alchemy of the
ancients only stimulates the inordinate
thirst for the yellow metal. The I'M
utterable sufferings which men undergo
! in the frozen regions of the north.
searching for that which will buy the
small comforts of life, says the Butte
Mining World, indicate the feverish
/ condition of the human mind. We are
/ apt TO dwell with criticism on the Gu
pidity exhibited by Spain after the dis
! covery of America. and 20 hold up our
! hands in horror when the unnumbered
pages of Spanish history were found
/ stained with innocent blood, but the
! avalice that led to the atrocities prac-
| ticed on the American continent in
early days was no more clearly de-
| fined than that which today character
ICES the average gold-Seeker. For
prudential reasons it is less popular to
murder, yet how many Klondike pill
srims would spare the unoffending
Chilkat Indians if through their death
treasures could be reaped like those
Won by PiEarro from the Inca of Peru?
The passion for gold has become so
intense that chemists are wrestling
with Inc problem of transmitting the
baser metals into the precious yellow
heritage with all the ardor that some
years since led the inventive genius of
the land to attempt to solve the prob
lem of perpetual motion Men eminent
in scientific circles, like Professor EN-
MONS have addressed their energies to
the task and believe they have in a
measure at last broken through the
mystery and brought the realization of
their dreams in sight. Through the
cold pressure of silver he hopes to sup
ply the world with gold, baSing his eff
forts on scientific conclusions that ap-
pear to be not wholly without merit.
However, if Mr.. EmmonS is scoring a
success, he is keeping it very quiet.
If destined to be a Monte CristO, he
has yet to blossom forth as proprietor
of incalculable wealth. Then again Mr..
Brice of Chicago has erected a smelter
with which anthony is to be changed
into gold by secret processes known
only to himself Thousands have been !
invested in a trial of his scheme, yet |
Chicago has not as yet begun to vomit |
forth its stream of yellow wealth.
Still another collaborating project, |
which. like the others that have been 1
referred to in these columns, is the eX-
traction of values from sea water. |
Works have been erected at North Luz
bee, Me, to gather in the gold supposed |
to be floating in solution in the bound
less waters of the Atlantic ocean. The |
water is gathered in a tank at high (
tide and flumed into a private room,
where the professors and other scien-
tific bric-a-brac extract the gold with
the help of providence and such other
means as they can command. It is
known that sea water contains an av-
eraGe of Oh grain per ton, but all eff
forts heretofore to precipitate values
have proved Intellectual, and there is
room for suspicion that the Maine
project will reap its richest harvest
from the sale of stock in the Electroly-
tic Marine Salts company, instead of
from the rolling deep. However, the
gave a number of tests
that gold buttons of to rs
have been secured from
run of 60 hours in one machine alone.
Two sample tests are as follows:
mo. 153. August. 1897. Long Island
Sound. Result of "a hours work with
apparatus using 475 tons of water, 6O.3
grains gold. value about $3.50; cost of {
extraction. % cents.
mo. 167, August, 1897. Long Island
Sound. Result of weeks work, using !
apparatus sufficiently large to form
init of construction in plant of any |
ize, 9.34 pennyweights gold; value.
$50: cost of extraction, barely IS :
ents."
Thus the search for gold goes bravely !
n. Mankind cannot await the slow I
PROCESSES of taking gold from the bow
Is of the earth. They must initiate i
he genius Of the Creator and manufac- I
ure it. They must wrest its infinitesi- l
nal particles from the tides and :
forms; and pretty soon some scientific +
crobat will arise from the sIumber of / I
he centuries and wrest a glittering +
ortune from the gold in liquified air.
% parapnraSe the Ancient Mariner:
Gold, gold everywhere and not a cent
0 spend"