The Wichita daily eagle., 1903-08-09

I
to the touch and heavy to handle. and
may be cut up and fused and tested in
the ordinary way. The first form of the
metal, or rather of the silver dollars.
following the preliminary conversion, diff
fers little in appearance from the orig
inal silver. 1t comes from the converter
in the form of small discs of a tribe
! greater diameter than the original dollar
and somewhat thicker. The metal is
slightly porous in appearance. But,
: whereas the original silver dollar was of
| the familiar silver color. the disc now
have an unmistakable golden tinge- The
! color is not evenly distributed. There is
merely q trace of it, and the silver color
predominates According TO Mr.. Hun
ter, this is the gold already beginning 10
appear, and the crumpled dollars are
rich in the yellow metal
I After the next treatment the silver
discs appear much flattened, and. conse-
1 quently. thinner. They resemble nothing
| as much as carelessly turned pancakes.
The metal appears to be much more por-
/ Gus and of coarser texture. By this time
however. the color is yet more marked.
The tinge of gold is stronger, and in
some places the CLINT OF the silver has
completely disappeared. The coloring is
! still uneven.
The metal next takes the form of tin
foil, or gold foil, probably as the result
of the pressure exerted. 1t is heavy 10
handle, while the color is now unn1is-
takably that of gold. a mere suggestion
of the silver remaining. The conversion
1t is said. is not quite complete. The
whole is then fused and the gold is sep
arated. A small percentage Of silver re-
mains, and this in turn. may be sub
jected to further conversion. The metal
resulting, according to Mr. Hunter, an
swers every chemical test OF gold, and.
indeed. is gold. Several golden buttons
and nuggets of pure gold. resulting from
the process. are in Mr.. Hunters posses
sion. Mr. Hunter, when asked for the
actual figures said:
Il have found by analyzing the trans
formed silver before separating the gold
from the unconverted silver that while
the degree of transformation varies some
what with each operation. the gold valu-
alton greatly dominates In one analy-
sis, for example. the value of the gold to
81. 900 was $3.50 and silver $3.50 while an
yer. The unconverted silver, when sep
arated, is fully converted into gold py
further subsection 10 the process. With
additional perfection Of the process 1t
is believed that the ratio OF value trans
formation within a given time will be
raised much higher.
THE gold is produced in various forms
in ingots, globules, flakes. powder and
even in a form resembling rich pay dirt
of placer mines. In smaller quantities the
gold is refined to absolutely twenty-five
( carat fine, but in the commercial form ii
is sufficient to reduce 1t to $50 10 800 fine,
or even less, 10 be acceptable at the
United States assay office or United
States mint. Gold coin is not usually
more than .740 fine, having an apprecia-
BILE percentage of copper, instead Of sil-
yer. to impart the desired hardness
Mr.. Hunters personality, it is but fair
10 say, carries conviction with it. One
who discusses with him the wonders of
his discovery can scarcely fail TO be i'm
pressed, If not wholly converted. He
has brought to bear upon this problem
the trained perception Of a veteran in
ventor and very keen creative faculty.
He makes his claims with absolute con-
viction and. it is impossible to doubt with
absolute sincerity.
Were MIR. Hunter to come out any day
with the announcement that he could
revolutionize trolley transportation or
electric lighting Or power transmission,
so great has been his success in cleo
tricity that many would accept his state
ment at its face value, while there are
many wealthy and solid business men or
Philadelphia who would be anxious TO
finance his plans to the extent OF millions
OF dollars.
So extraordinary is the claim made for
his new discovery that it will be fairest
both to Mr.. Hunter and the public to
allow him TO explain his science of alche-
my in exactly his own words. He says:
Professor Edwin J. Houston has made
the statement. 1 believe. that he had no
doubt whatever that gold can be made If
the split atoms OF electrons can be sep
arated and re-collected.' 1 will say that.
while Professor Houston and other scien-
lists think that the production of gold
can be so made. l know il is a fact be-
yond question. l have made and am max
ing IL by this breaking asunder of the
atoms of electrons and recombining them
into new correlation 20 produce atoms
having the capitalization of gold. the
atomic weight of gold. the specific grav-
ity Of gold, the spectroscopic test of gold, |
the color OF gold and also the acid resist
ances OF gold In fact. the article pro-
duced is a pure twenty-four carat gold
as nature ever made in her laboratory.
That metals are not elementary may |
be accepted as a fact and that text books
on chemistry will all need revision in |
this direction is already established. |
know that metals such as gold and silver
differ only in the arrangement Of their |
ions or elementary parts and the result !
ing atomic form due to such rearrange- |
nlent and correlation Of ions. Under the !
proper conditions one can transform sll-
Yer atoms into gold atoms IN two hours. |
Gold may be made from silver with q
rapidity which greatly surpasses any |
thing accepted by nature.
Metals may be transformed one into |
the other. but We must not lose sight Of /
the fact that It is far easier 70 transform /.
& metal into another which * more near !
~ resembles than TO form 1t from a
metal Of more distant group Thus gold I
is more easily made from silver as silver /
and gold resemble each other IN many
respects. but il may be made from copper I
and lead. though at q greater expense- I
One dollars worth Of silver produces !