The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1910-06-02
LURE OF GOLD LED
TO HIS DEATH
Even as Paracelsus Died Of Drought
OF His Elixer Of Life Did DIR.
LANCE Find His END.

SCRANTON. PA Special Tn,
lure of gold led CAaries Coulter Dick
inson 20 his death.
EVeN rs Paracelsus Of old died OF
/ a dr"rSht of his newly discovered
/ elixir OF life" so the young finan-
cier whose me. eoric career made
Wall Street gasp died Of the fumes
that were. he thought. to make him
the richest man in the world.
To manufacture gold, or at least
create a metal that would pass for
gold-the dream OF the aIchemists
for centuries untold-was the will o.
the wisp that drew the banker along
until nature, in rebellion at such dar-
ing inquisitiveness, snuffed out his life
with breath of death dealing gas
from the crucible in which he had
sought to discover her secrets.
Chemist Tells the Strange Story.
DR.. f. w. LANCE. the chemist who
conducted the experiments which
Dickinson was watching when he in
nailed the fatal fumes, made public
Wednesday a statement of what was
bSlng attempted-what the banker
had expected to realize.
Behind this technical description
by the chemist lies a romantic story.
Or. LANCE did not touch upon it when
making his statement, but a friend
who was in the secret told re-
porter some of the story.
our years ago man whose father
mao been a friend of DR.. LANCE. and
had dabbled with him in Chemical
experiments, visited the chemist and
toId him OF wonderful dream he
mad some nights before. IT seemed
to him. this man told DR.. LANCE. that
ms father had come TO him charged
with weighty secret.
The secret ran in the terms of a
chemical formula, and was not com
prehensible to the dreamer who had
little or no knowledge of the intri-
cacles of the science. But the dream
made such vivid impression on him
that he remembered every detail of
the formula which il seemed his
father wished him to convey to DIR
LANCE.
Formula Would Unravel Mvsterv
by means of this formula, so il was
explained in the dream, the chemist
would be able to unravel the great
mystery OF the relations between inor-
ganic substances, especially between
the metals. Properly applied. so the
cream went on, il would result in the
actual transmutation Of base metals
into those more precious
me dream was told to Dr. LANCE
and the extraordinary familiarity with
chemical terms which it involved
convinced DR.. LANCE, coming as il
ala from the mouth OF a man who
had no chemical education and knew
nothing of such experiments, that il
would be well worth trying At the
time DIR. Lange was conducting a
series OF experiments relating to cleo
trlc batteries. and he determined to
put the dream formula to n test.
Wnat the formula was is kept Sc
cret. but speaking of it, DR.. LANCE
said last night:
Turns Base Metals Into Silver.
-FOUR years ago, while experiment.
ing with a process for the reduction
OF the cost of making silver chlorides
which are used i'm dry cell electric
batteries. ] ran across a wonderful
secret-a sercret that has been sought
Tor ages and which will reVolutionize
the electrical industry, photographing
processes, and is so far-reaching i'm
Its effect that il will revolutionize the
world. L discovered the means Of in
creasing an atom of pure silver TO
loo times its size and weight and of
equal, if not greater, fneness.
have taken base metals Of four differ
ent kinds and successfully transmitted
them in proportions of one part of sill
YER and ninety-nine parts of base
metal into silver of the utmost pu-
rity.
1T has ever been my belief that
the theory of evolution pertains to
the inorganic as we'll as to the or
Sanic things of this earth. On this
basis ii was that l followed out nv
experiments. LknOw that silver is an
element; that in its present state IL
contains atoms and molecules of
nothing but silver. 7 believed, though.
that ii is possible 10 effect a molecu-
lar change in silver. and on this line
/ experimental.
My first tests were with the sill
yer chlorides Through them I be-
leVed lay the path to the secret. For
months and months I tested and test
cd. FINALLY one day I subjected a
matrlN or silver to a heat of 1000 de-
grees. In this intense heat, by the
ala OF the formula which I had dis
covered l brought the matrix of silver
ana ana nlnety-nlne times as great a
quantity of basest of metals together
and 10, the base metal had changed
10 silver of the purest quality One
hundred times as much silver came
out or the furnace as had gone in"
Seeks Man TO Back Project.
men Dr. Lange had become con-
Vlnced OF the practical possibilities of
his experiment he sought. with the
utmost secrecy. TO interest i'm it some
man whose wealth would enable him
to bear the brunt of possible fail
ure without serious difficulty. In the
course of his inquiries he interested
Victor w. b. Hedgepeth, of Scran-
ton.
Mr.. Hedgepeth believed there were
possibilities worth looking further
INTO, and as he had long been the in |
innate friend of Charles Coulter Dick |
nson, his classmate at Cornell Uni |
yersity Mr.. Hedgepeth sounded the |
former president of the Carnegie |
Turst Company.
Dickinson became interested at |
once and offered his financial support /
I his personal investigation should |
satisfy him that DR.. LANCE had really I
lnearthed the secret of the "philoso-
)her's stone," the solvent that alchem-
SITS for centuries have sought. which
would dissolve any and all metals
ma make their transmutation possi-
lie.
DR.. LANCE went ahead with his ex-
'erlments, turning out silver, or what
ooked and acted, physically and
hemically, like pure silver, from base
metals. Samples Of the manufac-
ured silver were given to Mr.. Dickin-
on and were assayed both in private
nd by the experts of the United