The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-26
Written for the Sunday Standard.


as other charlatans have discovered,
that the public is singularly ready to
be gulled by anything along the line
of invention. The last year has been
singularly ripe in exposures Of this sort,
which prove how willing capital is to
listen to the siren voice of the scien-
tific faker, who in consideration of a
trif1ing investment, undertakes to de-
liver ready made Klondike at the in
vestor's door. There was Edward c.
Brice, a Chicago alchemist, with his
secret process for turning antimony,
iron or any old thing, into gold-and
the pockets of his hackers inside out.
Then there was the Rev. P. +. Jerne-
gan, with a secret process for gather
ing the gold from salt by means of
'accumulators" planted along the
beach at low tide, as one plants lobster
pots.
The Jernegan exposure came last
July. For over two years prior to that
time the reverend gentleman had been
conducting experiments with what he
ingeniously called his electrolytic pro-
cess. tt y.
The first permanent plant of the
Marine Salts company" was estab
lished at Lubec. on the Maine coast,
rise and fall This was needed for the
perfect workings Of the scheme. With
small flow of tides, the supply of gold
close at hand would soon become ex
hausted and frequently removals would
be necessary. These, the good pastor
said, would entail heavy loss when he
got his works running full time.
The works row of small frame
sheds on a wharf, were carefully
guarded night and day by armed men.
One shed contained an electric plant,
another served as laboratory. The
shed that housed Jernegan's secret was
located at the end of the wharf. 1t was
built about by big bulkheads. Certain
phases of the work were carried on
without any particular regard for
secrecy. At low tide the 'accumula
tors We're planted along the beach and
connected by wires with a battery on
shore When the tide was in, current
of electricity was sent out to the accu-
mulators, and as the water rolled over
them, it obligingly left deposit of gold
in the mercury with which they were
filled. Each accumulation was supposed
to gather about $1.27 worth of gold in
the course of day. 2
Likely victims were taken to Lubec
by Jernegan. There they made their
own tests; they were encouraged to
supply themselves with mercury which
they were sure had not been tempered
with; this they placed in the accumu-
lators with their own hands, then they
lowered the receptacle into the sea.
When a sufficient time had elapsed
they were hauled up and the gold eX
tracted from the mercury on the spot.
No wonder some men completely lost
their heads and went into the scheme.
The stock of the concern sold rapidly,
just how much is disposed of is not
known, but one thing is certain, Jer-
negan realized considerably over a
quarter of million. Then he found it
necessary to go to Europe for the pur-
chase of new and improved machinery.
At this juncture the secret part of the
process was exposed 1t was beau
tifully simple. A diver was sent down
from the mysterious room surrounded
by bulkheads. He overturned the pots
of mercury and then deftly filled them
with doctored solution.
The sea water gold fraud exposure
was followed by the sudden fight of
Edward c. Brice from Chicago. It is
not too much to say that Mr.. Brice
was the brains of the National Metal
lurigical company This company
was engaged in duplicating the pro-
cesses of nature in the manufacture
of gold. In Mr.. Brice's own alluring
words, the process was merely an imi-
tation Of natures own methods. Ma
ture is constantly engaged in manu-
featuring gold. She makes it out of
baser metals, transmits the latter into
the precious substance, that is to say
by fusing them together at enormous
heat, so we counterfeit the volcano
by means of furnace, and from SINH
lar raw material we get the same re-
suits" The raw material was an
timony, iron, sulphur and charcoal.
These We're fused in crucibles, and the
Chicago genius was ready to declare
dividend. Mr.. ~Brice modestly esti-
mated that one ton of raw material
would yield $4,000 worth of gold. He
was enthusiastic and confident, and
the National Metallurgical company
soon had laboratory equipped with
furnaces, crucibles and retorts. An in
spring show of activity was made. The
crude anthony was treated to num-
Der of weird processes, and great guam
titles of base molten bullion made
This bullion unqueStiona bly, contained
gold. Experts said it assayed 81 to a
ton. Brice declared the experts were
trying to ruin him. There were $4,000
in every ton of the stuff, so he said
and he made assays of his own to
prove it,
Meanwhile there We're active specula-
ton in the stock of the company. Its
par value was $40 share. There We're
in all $500 shares; of these Mr. Brice
held 100, and his friends 2,45O. There
We're left $3.50 shares for speculative
purposes. 1t was actually selling at
$500 a share when Jernegan fled to
Europe. That killed the gold making
industry for the time being
There are number of confiding New
York and London capitalists, who have
reason to remember the opera tons of
an elderly German named Henry c.
Freund. When he appeared in New
York in 1885, he let it be known that
he had an important secret process for
refining sugar. The old German soon
secured an audience of capitalists, who
undertook to investigate his process.
The first of these Investigations were
held in his private apartments. A bar
rel of raw sugar would be brought in.
and everybody would be excluded
from the room except Freund and his
wife and his machine. The investiga-
tors were usually kept waiting 10 min
utes, when the door would be opened
and they would find the raw sugar
gone and in its stead a lot of beauti- |
fully refined granulated sugar. The |
mystery was, what had become of the |