ALCHEMY REDIVIVUS. 673 



essentially in subjecting antimony, sulpliur, and iron to intense 

 heat in a crucible, whereby a portion of the antimony is supposed 

 to be changed or transmuted into gold, and this is subsequently 

 recovered by the usual metallurgical methods. 



The experts found, on repeating these experiments, using the 

 purest antimony that could be obtained from chemists, that a 

 tiny globule of gold and silver remained after removing all the 

 iron, antimony, and sulphur; but they also found that traces 

 of gold and silver are invariably associated with native anti- 

 mony, and when they succeeded in producing chemically pure 

 antimony for the test, not a trace of gold or of silver resulted 

 from the subsequent transmuting or " creative " process. 



Some criticism has been expressed that the United States Gov- 

 ernment should have dignified this ridiculous claim, to the extent 

 of ordering an investigation of it by the mint metallurgists, but 

 their report is well calculated to set at rest the preposterous 

 scheme which had already attracted not a few gullible people, 

 including some investors.* 



This investigation recalls a series of interesting experiments 

 which were made in the Philadelphia Mint about forty years ago 

 by the former assayer, the late Jacob R. Eckfeldt, the results of 

 which were communicated to the American Philosophical Society 

 by his assistant and successor, the late William E. Dubois, who 

 also aided in the work. Samples of nearly all the known metals 

 were obtained from various parts of the country ; these were sub- 

 jected to the usual processes for detecting the presence of gold, 

 the greatest care being used to avoid errors. Gold was found in 

 all the specimens of antimony, bismuth, lead, copper, etc., vary- 

 ing from one part in four hundred and forty thousand parts in a 

 specimen of antimony to one part in six million two hundred and 

 twenty thousand parts in a specimen of galena from Bucks Coun- 

 ty, Pennsylvania : this was equivalent to two grains and a quarter, 

 not quite ten cents, to the ton. 



The most remarkable result of all was obtained from speci- 

 mens of clay from various localities within the limits of the city 

 of Philadelphia; the clay was taken from a depth of about 

 fourteen feet below the surface, and was found to contain gold 

 in the proportion of one part in one million two hundred and 



* It is stated that the inventor of the so-called " gold creative process " applied for a 

 United States patent, and, upon its refusal, the matter was brought before the present 

 Secretary of the Treasury, who ordered the investigation to be made in the metallurgical 

 laboratory of the Mint Bureau. The committee appointed by the Director of the Mint, in 

 accordance with these instructions, consisted of the assayer of the Mint Bureau, the super- 

 intendent of the assay office in New York, and the melter and refiner of the Mint in Phila- 

 delphia. They adhered closely to the inventor's formulas. An abstract of their report has 

 appeared in print. 



VOL. LI. 51 



