Evening star., 1931-06-14


father he had come to locate i6. First, he
wanted "a little more infor alton"
Otto Durow, the father, was outside in Ford
car that buged with camping equipment. He
told me that he was born IN Germany In the
year 1850; that when he was IL years old his
parents brought him to America, and that for
so years of his life he had been blacksmith
that he shod pillow horses thoroughly
and gentle with them He did not say how
he drifted into the treasure hunting business,
but he was on FIRE with en- husiasm for his
treasure locator" must 1t work. The
demonstration took place inside the house.
The instrument was in lcng case sheathed
with finely plated leather. When pulled out, it
proved to be made of two stiff steel wires of
equal length, about Az feet. Each was closely
wrapped with small copper wire. The two were
bound together at one extremity for distance
Of about 20 inches. Thus WHEN the loose ends
were pulled apart the wires made long 7, re-
minding one Of a water witch's switch The free
end of one of the wires was fitted into round
lug for holding between the teeth The free end
of the other designed for holding IN the
hand. The bound portion OF the wire termi-
mated in kind Of clasp
This clasp was for holding mineral disks of
which the Burrows carried varied assortment
in leather pouch the largest being about an
inch and a half in diameter They were hollow
and each had a metal band around it that had
been placed there under great pressure" They
contained coal, OIL iron, copper, zinc, lead sill
yer, gold and other minerals The little disk for
oil, SO Frank Durow assured me, contained "the
essence Of five gallons of pure oil" If one
wished to locate gold any other mineral in a
given vicinity, all one had to do to insert
the proper disk-a gold disk for locating gold
silver for locating silver etc-in the clasp and
note the instruments action. If none of the
desired mineral was present, the locator would
rerain hstleSs; If present, the locator" would
lead" to 1t.
Old Durow told me Of how he tested field
In Kansas for oil Two wells were going down:
the locator" indicated that no oil was present;
true to the Instruments word, the wells proved
to be busters" The original gold disk that
came with the machine had proved to be so
powerful that it was attracted by gold miles
away; in order to locate smaller caches of gold
near at hand Durow had been forced to have q
smaller disk made.
The machine had a history. A brass plate
on the outside Of the case read:
MINOMETER
". ]. Myers
MANUFACTURER
Kansas City
1t had taken Myers Il years to perfect the
machine, "and when he died the secret went
with him." Just before he died the Burrows
paid him 5000 for it and 500 for the set of
disks. I expressed q curiosity to look inside
one Of the disks, but. no, to open it would
allow all the essence" to escape. Myers had
made only eight other minometers (mino for
mineraD. Before he became an inventor he
had been q geologiSt During the last years
OF hls life he was much in demand for locating
mineral veins and hidden treasures over Kansas
ana Missouri He used to get SIS day for
his services and q percentage of all stuff"
located. AS he left his widow a handsome
inheritance, he had evidently located plenty
OF stuff" One time when he was operating for
treasure buried in a city yard the pull" Of his
minometer was interfered with by money in q
bank and he prevailed on the bank president
to remove some of it from the. vaults He then
refined the machine so that it would not be
attracted by money in vaults, but only by raw
mineral or money In the ground
IN order to demonstrate the minometer, old
Durow placed on the floor piece Of quartz
containing gold and silver inserted a gold disk
IN the clasp Of the machine, seized the lug of
the mouth wire" between his teeth and the
loose end of the other wire in his right hand
and let the contrivance work. Like a snake
reused from a soft doze by the smell of q
mouse the bound ends of the wires and the
gold disk attached twisted, rose into the air
and bent around toward the ore. raised the
specimen slowly above my head and the gold
disk followed it. placed it on the other side
Of the room and the minometer pulled old man
Durcw around in that direction. 1t would bend
clear around, and a man need have strong jaw
teeth to hold on. One time Myers. the inventor,
had heavy tooth'-as Durow called .
molaf-splt in two with the thing. It told
him." said Durow, that if he would make the
plate at the end of the wire fiat man could
hold it better. Myers answered that the
minometer would not work with fiat plate"
I tried the instrument myself. As I am an
accomplished witcher, having witched for OIL
water, gold and silver, all, was able to operate
it very well. Bill Pickett the Negro cow
hand who won fame for himself and the 101
Ranch by bulldogging steers with his teeth,
would have made fine minometer man.
asked the Burrows if they had ever located
anything valuable. Yes, they had located two